The story of film [antikvár]

The measure of an artist's originality, put in its simplest terms, is the extent to which his selective emphasis deviates from the conventional norm and establishes new standards of relevance. All great innovations which inaugurate a new era, movement or school, consist in sudden shifts of a previously neglected aspect of experience, some blacked out range of the existential spectrum. The decisive turning points in the history of every art form uncover what has already been there; they are "revolutionary", that is destructive and constructive, they compel us to revalue our values and impose new sets of rules on the eternal game. Arthur Koestler> The industry is shit, it's the tnedium that's great. Lauren Bacall^ This book tells the story of the art of cinema. It narrates the history of a medium which began as a photographic, largely silent, shadowy novelty and became a digital, multi-billion-dollar global business. Although the business elements of film are important, you will find few details in what follows of what films cost and how the industry organizes itself and markets its wares. I wanted to write a purer book than that, one more focused on the medium than the industry. As you read, therefore, you will come across works that you may not have seen and may never see. I make no apology for this because I do not want to tell a history of cinema that is distorted by the vagaries of the market-place. There are mainstream films described in what follows, but mostly I have focused on what I consider to be the most innovative films from any country at any period. This could be seen as elitist or self-indulgent, but it isn't. Film is one of tlie most accessible art forms so even its most obscure productions can be understood by an intelligent non-specialist, which I assume you are. When I first read books about Orson Welles