Historical Dictionary of French Cinema

It can be argued that cinema was created in France by Louis Lumire in 1895 with the invention of the cinmatographe, the first true motion-picture camera and projector. While there were other cameras and devices invented earlier that were capable of projecting intermittent motion of images, the cinmatographe was the first device capable of recording and externally projecting images in such a way as to convey motion. Early films such as Lumire's La Sortie de l'usine, a minute-long film of workers leaving the Lumire factory, captured the imagination of the nation and quickly inspired the likes of Georges Mlis, Alice Guy, and Charles Path. Through the years, French cinema has been responsible for producing some of the world's best directorsJean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, Franois Truffaut, and Louis Malleand actorsCharles Boyer, Catherine Deneuve, Grard Depardieu, and Audrey Tautou. The Historical Dictionary of French Cinema covers the history of French film from the silent era to the present in a concise and up to date volume detailing the development of French cinema and major theoretical and cultural issues related to it. This is done through a chronology, an introduction, photographs, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on many of the major actors, directors, films, movements, producers, and studios associated with French cinema. Going beyond mere biographical information, entries also discuss the impact and significance of each individual, film, movement, or studio included. This detailed, scholarly analysis of the development of film in France is useful to both the novice and the expert alike.