In this lively, informative and up-to-date new analysis of what has been called the seventh art, David Parkinson traces the evolution of the moving image from the earliest shadow shows to the contemporary cinema. Covering the key elements and players that have contributed to its artisitc and technical development, it offers a remarkably concise overview of film throughout the world. Beginning with cinema's scientific origins, the book assesses the achievements of an international body of film-makers: D.W. Griffith and the pioneers of the classical narrative; silent artists; the directors of Golden Age Hollywood; the Italian Neo-Realists; the auteurs of the French New Wave and those responsible for the directions that cinema has recently taken internationally. Concluding with a preview of film in the future, this is a uniquely comprehensive account of the most modern of art forms.

Thames and Hudson

David Parkinson is a film critic and the author of The Bloomsbury Good Movie Guide. He has edited Mornings in the Dark: The Graham Greene Film Reader and written The Young Oxford Book of Cinema and The Oxford Dictionary of Film.