A short history of the movies

This is to date the most useful film history survey___It is the most balanced, the most accurate, the most sensitive to film as an art form. —Professor Elisabeth Weis Brooklyn College City University of New York Gerald Mast's A Short History of the Movies, first published in 1971, and now in this new, fourth edition, is the quintessential chronicle of movie history. Expanded with more stills—in black and white and in color—and with an additional chapter on foreign films, this classic has been updated by Mast to reflect a whole bevy of current trends. And, continuing the focus of the third edition, he places the achievements of film within the context of social practice and cultural convention. Gerald Mast presents a thorough, complete, and all-encompassing examination of the evolution of this "new art"—through the major styles, periods, genres, and works. From the birth of film in the late nineteenth century, to its present high-tech state some ninety years later, Mast escorts the reader on a comprehensive tour of this kinetic medium. He traces its origins from the early photographic visionaries, through the heyday of Hollywood, the emergence of neorealism and new waves, to the sop