Margins
American Cinema 1890-1909 book cover
American Cinema 1890-1909
Themes and Variations
2009
First Published
3.79
Average Rating
288
Number of Pages

At the turn of the twentieth century, cinema was quickly establishing itself as a legitimate form of popular entertainment.The essays in American Cinema 1890-1909 explore and define how the making of motion pictures flowered into an industry that would finally become the central entertainment institution of the world. Beginning with all the early types of pictures that moved, this volume tells the story of the invention and consolidation of the various processes that gave rise to what we now call "cinema." By examining the battles over patents, production, exhibition, and the reception of film, readers learn how going to the movies became a social tradition in American society. In the course of these two decades, cinema succeeded both in establishing itself among other entertainment and instructional media and in updating various forms of spectacle.

Avg Rating
3.79
Number of Ratings
19
5 STARS
26%
4 STARS
42%
3 STARS
16%
2 STARS
16%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

André Gaudreault
Author · 5 books
André Gaudreault is a professor in the Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études cinématographiques at the Université de Montréal, where he is director of GRAFICS (Groupe de recherche sur l’avènement et la formation des institutions cinématographique et scénique). His books include studies of narratology in film (From Plato to Lumière: Narration and Monstration in Literature and Cinema, 2009) and film history (American Cinema, 1890-1909, ed., 2009; Film and Attraction: From Kinematography to Cinema, 2011; The Blackwell Companion to Early Cinema, co-ed., 2012). He is also the director of the bilingual scholarly journal Cinémas.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved