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by Gilbert Adair

Penguin USA

Due/Published May 2000, 447 pages, paper

ISBN 0141180846

Cinema is the quintessential art form of the twentieth century. From the Lumie`re brothers' first public film screening at the end of the nineteenth century to the technical wizardry of today, cinema has recorded, created, even revised our history. Its images, icons, follies, and foibles endure as part of our collective consciousness. However, does the end of the century also herald the "end of cinema"? Has mainstream, formulaic, big-budget moviemaking triumphed over other alternatives? Covering a panoramic range of genres and styles, from B-movies and Nazi propaganda films to independent features and animated productions, and with texts by Orson Welles, François Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock, Colette, John Updike, Umberto Eco, and other modern visionaries, this eclectic volume is a refreshing look at the ever-fascinating world of the movies and a much-needed corrective to the Hollywood bias.

"An anthology to destroy in a weekend--and open up your life. Start dipping Friday night, and by Sunday lunch you're seeing the links between Manny Farber and Sergei Eisenstein, Mickey Mouse and Modernism . . . superb." --David Thomson, author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film

Gilbert Adair is the author of such novels as The Holy Innocents, winner of the Authors' Club First Novel Award, and Love and Death on Long Island. His cinematic credentials include Hollywood's Vietnam, an in-depth look at cinema's portrayal of the Vietnam War, and Flickers, a celebration of the cinema's centenary.