63 years since the last book on the history of universal film appeared in Romanian, Vellant Publishing House publishes for the first time, in partnership with UNATC Press, “History of film. An introduction (volume I)” by Kristin Thompson, David Bordwell and Jeff Smith, in a translation signed by Andrei Rus (translation coordinator), Gabriela Filippi, Dora Leu, Andreea Mihalcea and Iulia Voicu. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Center for Pedagogy and Study of the Image Sorin Botoșeneanu within UNATC Bucharest.
Analyzing a rich selection of film productions from the 1880s to 1945, this first volume documents the period of early cinema, the late silent film era, the birth and first decades of sound film, to the end of World War II. This history takes shape through an introduction to the precursors of the narrative film filmed on the kinetoscope and the invention of the cinema by the Lumière brothers – a period in which films were perceived rather in terms of technological innovation –; the evolution of the fiction film, the documentary, the experimental film, the first animated films, the films of DW Griffith and Albert Capellani, two early masters of the cinema, the first westerns, Charles Chaplin's silent films, Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, but also non- -western, such as the historical Japanese film (jidai-geki) or the film about contemporary life (gendai-geki) and the contribution of directors such as Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa, and many other milestones of cinema from these decades.
“Film History. An Introduction” analyzes more than the history of the aesthetics and languages of film art, while also documenting these occurrences in their specific socio-cultural contexts. Films shape our perception of the world we are part of or of worlds belonging to different times and places, reproduce or question different aspects of these worlds, confirm or invalidate certain identities and languages. Faithful to these premises, the authors answer some essential questions about the ways and limits within which films are born and then received, engaging the analysis of local and transnational aspects involved in the evolution of cinema.
These researches materialize in a particularly useful tool not only for filmmakers, critics and film historians and students from specialized faculties, but also – perhaps even primarily – in one available to the general cinephile public, offering keys to analysis deep and passionate about thousands of films, some of which are famous and beloved, and others rather (too) little known.
“The History of Film – An Introduction, originally published in English in 1994 and now in its fifth edition (2021), revised and supplemented, is widely considered by specialists to be the most complex contemporary synthesis of the evolution of cinema world. (…) The authors treat the cinema from several perspectives. They are concerned, on the one hand, with describing the political, social, economic and cultural contexts that have determined the environment's trajectory. It then presents the main technological advances and points out the various ways in which they marked the industry and the cinematographic art. At the same time, although they include extensive analyzes of the most important filmmakers and the most outstanding films, they are not only interested in recounting a history of the succession of masterpieces, but also give generous space to average productions, considering – rightly – that in order to understands the specific phenomena of a certain period and region, they constitute a historical resource many times more useful than the exceptions to the rule. (…) Beyond the numerous examples of canonical films, the book arouses readers' curiosity to watch at least an equal amount of rather obscure and rare films, which prove, once discovered, true revelations.“, says Andrei Rus, university associate. Dr. UNATC and the translation coordinator
Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, two of the world's foremost film historians, professors of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin, have co-authored numerous books on film history, theory, and analysis. For the fifth edition, they were joined by Jeff Smith, a professor in the same study program at the University of Wisconsin. This year David Bordwell passed away.
Starting from June 21, “Film history. An introduction – vol. I” is available for order on the website of the publishing house Vellant and in bookstores throughout the country.
A first launch of the volume will take place on Saturday, June 22, at 3:30 p.m., at TIFF, in the Lounge (Piața Unirii). Andrei Rus and Miruna Runcan participate in the launch.
