Chronicle of the CINEMA: 100 Years of the Movies

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Chronicle of the CINEMA 100 Years of the Movies
R 791.4309 CHR 1997
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Citation

• Chronicle of the cinema / production by
  Catherine Legrand Robyn Karney, editor in
  chief. --  2nd ed.. -- Great Britain
  Dorling Kindersley Limited New York DK Pub.,
  c1997.
• 941 p.  ill. (some col.) 30 cm.
• "100 years of the movies"--Cover.
• Includes index.
• ISBN 0789422492
• 1. Motion picture industry -- History. 2.
  Motion pictures -- History Chronology. 3.
  Motion picture actors and actresses. I.
  Legrand, Catherine. II. Karney, Robyn.

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Arrangement

• Chronologically accounts of movie-related
  events, written in present-tense, 1894-1997 (one
  of the publishers Chronicle series)
• Each decades entries preceded by an essay
  (Movies Find a Voice for the 1930s)
• Each year short chronology of highlights, movie
  poster illustrations, news-style articles (i.e.,
  Gimme a Visky, Baby, orders Garbo, under
  1930)
• Interspersed essays on the development of sound,
  the studio system, color and widescreen, the
  Oscar story, cameras, box-office hits, reel
  music, and special effects

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Contents

• Birth of an Industry, 1900 to 1919
• The Silent Era, 1920 to 1929
• Movies Find a Voice, 1930 to 1939
• War and After, 1940 to 1949
• The Swing of the Pendulum, 1950 to 1959
• The New Wave, 1960 to 1969
• Strange Bedfellows, 1970 to 1979
• The Reagan Years, 1980 to 1989
• Towards the Millennium, 1990 to 1997
• Moguls and Machines The Development of Sound /
  Joel W. Finler
• The Studio System / Joel W. Finler
• Color and Widescreen / Joel W. Finler
• The Oscar Story / Ronald Bergan
• Cameras / Joel W. Finler
• Box-Office Hits / Joel W. Finler
• Reel Music / Ronald Bergen
• Special Effects Tricks of the Trade / Joel W.
  Finler

Decades
Essays on production and history
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General index
Namespeople, organizations, eventswith dates
(British-style) and page nos.
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Film index
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Scope

• 100 years of the movies, inception to 1997
• Each movie treated separately, with multiple
  accounts, filming through release and awards
• Coverage of developments in Italy, Russia, Spain,
  Algeria, Egypt, Japan, and Mexico, as well as the
  U.S. and Britain
• Coverage of early African-American films
• Some true gossip on movie stars lives
• Births and deaths

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1957
1964
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Between the 1929 and 1930 entries
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1903
1997
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1930
1953
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Currency Good on cinema through 1997

• A 2003 DK book Cinema Year by Year, 1894-2003,
  is basically an updated edition, edited by Robyn
  Karney, Joel W. Finler, and others involved in
  the earlier book. Editions of this later title
  have been issued every year since 2000.

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Purposes

• Entertainment! For movie buffs and plain movie
  watchers
• For researchers
• For research on bar-bet questions (though the
  betters might think it doesnt look serious
  enough)

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Special features

• News-type stories
• 8 essays
• 3000 posters, portraits, and stills
• Forward by Gene Siskel

(Format Paper only
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Editor-in-chief

• Robyn Karney has been working in the movie world
  for more than
• twenty years, as a film, theater, and literary
  critic.
• She has written many books on the cinema,
  including Stars of the Forties, Hollywood Love
  Stories An Analysis, The Foreign Film Guide, A
  Star Danced The Life of Audrey Hepburn and The
  Life and Films of Burt Lancaster.
• She has edited books, including Glamorous
  Musicals and Academy Award Winners, as well as a
  series, The Warner Bros. Story, The Paramount
  Story, The Hollywood Musical, The Movie Stars
  Story, The Movie Directors Story, and The
  Hollywood Story.

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Reviews

• An exhaustive overview of cinema's first 100
  years. Over 3000 posters, portraits, and stills
  illustrate countless film facts, developments,
  and highlights in a clear, year-by-year format.
  Concise and easily accessible lists combine with
  captivating reviews to entice readers to roam
  throughout this volume. Casual browsers, film
  fans, and students will delight in this extensive
  history. School Library Journal
• Crammed with movie posters and stills. . . . It
  will also provide you with a fun read.
  Entertainment Weekly

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Reviews (cont.)

• The most beautiful of the recent histories of
  the moving picture's first century. Within nine
  sections, each year begins with a page of
  significant events and a full-page photo or
  stunningly reproduced poster. Ensuing pages
  include black-and-white and color photos with
  text and smaller posters. In eight relatively
  brief special essays (covering sound, studios,
  color, Academy Awards, cameras, hit movies,
  music, and special effects), a great deal of
  information is covered in an even-handed manner.
  No genre is shortchanged the international scene
  is covered most, if not all, major stars and
  directors receive their due. General and film
  indexes make all this information easily
  accessible. For scholars it may be just a
  refresher, while for others, it will work as a
  handsome introduction. For both it will be an
  aesthetic delight. Public and school libraries
  will find it well worth the price. Library
  Journal

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Reviews (3)

• DK Publishing has apparently revised and updated
  their 1995 edition without calling it a second
  edition. This is a splendid reference, with
  plenty of visuals accompanied by substantive
  text, covering film history from 1894 through
  1997. Descriptive text for each film is presented
  with a dateline and written as if it were a
  lively contemporary newspaper account of the
  movie's release, with discussion of context,
  significance, and anecdotes, as well as plot and
  cast. An extended essay introduces each decade,
  and there are also essays on the development of
  sound, the studio system, color and widescreen,
  the Oscar, cameras, box-office hits, music, and
  special effects. Although the major focus is on
  U.S. film, international cinema is well-
  represented. Booknews

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My impression

• This is fun, colorful, accurate, good for
  browsing
• Its well-indexed, so you can look up people,
  groups, and films
• You cant find some things if you dont know a
  name to start with
• Someone who wants theory of film would want
  something further or something else

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Reference questions

• What French films have won Academy Awards?
• Cant be found here as ready referenceindex
  doesnt have entries for nationality or ethnic or
  racial groups, just proper names. There are
  entries for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
  and Sciences and for Awards and Prizes, but under
  these headings are chronological lists of events,
  without lists.
• Why did Charlie Chaplin leave the United States?
• His re-entry permit was rescinded, because
  authorities suspected him of being a Communist
  Party member. (You need to go down chronological
  list under entry for Chaplin,)

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Web results

• French films
• Search just for Academy Award winners worked
  bestwww.oscars.org has data
• 32 nominations for France 9 awards (plus 3
  Special/Honorary Awards)
• Chaplin
• Lots of results for Charlie Chaplin exile,
  including a Wikipedia article and a recent CBS
  story at cbs.com, with more detail than the
  Chronicle book.