Read more
List of contents
Preface to the Third Edition
Acknowledgements
Note
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Pixels
Chapter 2 – Celluloid
Chapter 3 – Chroma
Chapter 4 – Machines
Chapter 5 – People
Chapter 6 – Buildings
Chapter 7 – Works
Chapter 8 – Show
Chapter 9 – Acoustics
Chapter 10 – Collections
Chapter 11 – Evidence
Chapter 12 – Duplicates
Chapter 13 – Lacunae
Chapter 14 – Traces
Chapter 15 – Curatorship
Bibliographic resources and research tools
Appendix 1 – Film Measurement Tables
Appendix 2 – Eastman Kodak Edge Codes on Motion Picture Film Stock, 1913–1928
Appendix 3 – Identification of Pathé Films by Their Edge Inscriptions
Credits of Illustrations
Index
About the author
About the author
Paolo Cherchi Usai is Senior Curator of the Motion Picture Department of George Eastman House, founder of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation and of the annual Pordenone Silent Film Festival. Cherchi Usai's publications include The Griffith Project, co-published by the British Film Institute and Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, in 12 volumes (1996-2012); The Death of Cinema: History, Cultural Memory, and the Digital Dark Age (2001); and Burning Passions: An Introduction to the Study of Silent Cinema (1994).
Summary
Paolo Cherchi Usai provides a comprehensive introduction to the study, research and preservation of silent cinema from its heyday in the early 20th century to its present day flourishing. He traces the history of the moving image in its formative years, from Edison’s and Lumière’s first experiments to the dawn of ‘talkies’; provides a clear guide to the basics of silent film technology; introduces the technical and creative roles involved in its production, and presents silent cinema as a performance event, rather than a passive viewing experience.
This new, greatly expanded edition takes the reader on a new journey, exploring silent cinema in the broader context of technology, culture, and society, from the invention of celluloid film and its related machinery to film studios, laboratories, theatres and audiences. Among the people involved in the creation of a new art form were filmmakers, actors and writers, but also engineers, entrepreneurs, and projectionists. Their collective efforts, and the struggle to preserve their creative work by archives and museums, are interwoven in a compelling story covering three centuries of media history, from the magic lantern to the reinvention of silent cinema in digital form.
The new edition also includes comprehensive resource information for the study, research, preservation and exhibition of silent cinema.
Foreword
A comprehensive introduction to silent cinema as a cultural, technological and industrial phenomenon by a leading expert.
Additional text
This third edition of an already classic introduction to cinema’s ‘silent’ era may be the best of all. Instead of merely updating his pioneering text, Paolo Cherchi Usai has re-thought what the early period means to us today, and addresses the ‘digital natives’ who will be its main readers. It’s hard to imagine a more enthusiastic or authoritative introduction.
