Book description
At the end of the nineteenth century, audiences were enthralled by
the flickering image of an oncoming train in a Lumière Brothers'
short film; more than a hundred years later the immersive fantasy of
Avatar enveloped audiences around the globe.
Film is a communal dream in which our fears and fantasies are
revealed, often to startling effect. It has influenced our behaviour
in small but significant ways, from the widespread abandonment of
vests after Clark Gable's example in It Happened One Night to
gangsters holding their weapons at movie-cool angles, improving their
image but not their aim. It has intertwined with politics, helping to
forge national identity, galvanise against a wartime enemy or warn of
social upheaval via horror or science fiction. It has burrowed deep
into our psyche, changing perceptions of history and memory - one
study showed soldiers' recall may sometimes owe more to war films than
actual experience. It has even raised romantic expectations that for
us, too, 'the one' will arrive for that big clinch in the final reel.
Despite decades of rapid change, we are still hypnotised and seduced
by the power of cinema; it remains our most persuasive mass
entertainment. In this fascinating, entertaining and illuminating book
Francine Stock takes us on a personal journey through a glorious
century of cinema, showing in vivid detail how film both reflects and
makes our world.
Francine Stock has presented radio and television programmes on
current affairs and the arts from BBC 2's
Newsnight
to
Radio 4's
Front Row.
Since
2004, she has presented
The Film Programme
. She has also published two novels,
A Foreign Country
and
Man-Made Fibre
.
