The Endless End of Cinema: A History of Crisis and Survival in Hollywood

Description

Film is dead! Three little words that have been heard around the world many times over the life of the cinema. Yet, some 120 years on, the old dog’s ability to come up with new tricks and live another day remains as surprising and effective as ever. This book is an exploration of film’s ability to escape its own ‘The End’ title card. It charts the history of cinema’s development through a series of crises that could, should, ought to have ‘ended’ it. From its origins to Covid - via a series of unlikely friendships with sound, television and the internet - the book provides industry professionals, scholars and lovers of cinema with an informing and intriguing journey into the afterlife of cinema and back to the land of the living. It is also a rare collaboration between an Oscar-winning filmmaker and a film scholar, a chronicle of their attempt to bridge two worlds that have often looked at each other with as much curiosity as doubt, but that are bound by the deep love of cinema that they both share. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Introducing: The Film Industry Chapter 2: The Motion Picture Patents Company: The Crisis of Control Chapter 3: The Big Bang: The Crisis of Sound Chapter 4: No Place Like Home: The Crisis of Television Chapter 5: When the Legend Becomes Fact, Print the Legend: The Crisis of Perception (Old Hollywood and Rise of New Hollywood) Chapter 6: Hollywood and Millennials: The Crisis of Method Chapter 7: The Value of Film in the Age of Content Plenty: The Crisis of Legacy Chapter 8: The Thieves in the Night – Spanish Flu and Covid-19: The Unexpected Crisis Inconclusion (No, That’s Not a Typo) References Index