This book brings together the study of silent cinema and the study of British cinema, both of which have seen some of the most exciting developments in Film Studies in recent years. The result is a comprehensive survey of one of the most important periods of film history. Most of the acknowledged experts on this period are represented, joined by several new voices. Together they chart the development of cinema in Britain from its beginnings in the 1890s to the conversion to sound in the late 1920s. From these accounts the youthful British cinema emerges as far from innocent. On the contrary, it was a fascinatingly complex field of cultural and industrial practices. The book also includes guides to bibliographical and archival sources and an extensive bibliography.
Andrew Higsonis Professor of Film and Television at the University of York in the UK. He taught at the University of East Anglia from 1986 to 2008, where he was head of Film and Television Studies for several years. He has published widely on British cinema and on debates about national cinema. He is the author ofEnglish Heritage, English Cinema: Costume Drama Since 1980(OUP, 2003) andWaving the Flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain(OUP, 1995); as editor, his books includeBritish Cinema, Past and Present, co-edited with Justine Ashby (Routledge, 2000), and’Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange, 1920-1939, co-edited with Richard Maltby(University of Exeter Press, 1999).
List of Illustrations
Picture Credits
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Andrew Higson
SECTION A – Putting the Pioneers in Context: Films and Filmmakers before the First World War
1. “But the Khaki-Covered Camera is theLatestThing”: The Boer War Cinema and Visual Culture in Bl“7
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