The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1911-1920 (AFI Catalog) [Hardcover]

American Film Institute (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520063015 | ISBN-13: 978-0520063013 | Publication Date: January 9, 1989

The American Film Institute Catalog volumes easily surpass all other film reference books for comprehensiveness, reliability, and utility. In a field bedevilled by quickly assembled and slipshod reference works, the Catalogs are the one essential purchase for every library. This set of volumes, on the teen years, covers a pivotal period in film history, encompassing the birth of the feature film and the development of the "film language" that still structures virtually all narrative films today. The decade saw the rise of stars, and of directors who left their creative mark on decades to come--Griffith, Ince, De Mille. Small firms gave way to consolidated studios. And film production relocated to the Southern California town whose name became synonymous with American films: Hollywood. Classics of the era such as De Mille's The Cheat and Griffith's Intolerance have reached popular audiences, and many others are being distributed on videocassette. New scholarly attention is focusing on the decade--especially on such questions as how stage melodrama elements were gradually incorporated into film narrative. But since film is also a record of folkways and national concerns, the rich materials catalogued here will be invaluable to social or cultural historians. As John Fell, author of Film and the Narrative Tradition, comments: "In a real sense, the AFI Catalog preserves and revitalizes old movies that will otherwise disappear . . . [it] will increasingly serve an audience far broader than motion picture history alone."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

At long last, the AFI Catalog continues with this exhaustive set. Volume 1 lists nearly 5200 American feature films alphabetically, with cast and credits, source, copyright date, length (in reels), synopsis, subject and genre notations, notes, and for the first time in the series, trade periodical and newspaper review citations. Volume 2 is comprised entirely of indexes (many also new for the series) by personal name, distributor/producer, genre, geographic location, literary/dramatic source, and subject. This last index is particularly valuable and unique; here one may find the films that deal with, for instance, sheriffs, weddings, locales, prostitution, and (a personal favorite) rent collectors. To call this truly massive work--the product of a national arrary of researchers and archives--definitive and sorely needed is to understate the case. This set also helps to heal the howling controversy that arose when the AFI got Hollywoody and dismantled the educational/library departments in the early 1970s, after issuing Catalog volumes for 1921-30 (1971, LJ 12/15/71) and 1960-69 (1976, LJ 7/76). Now in long-term planning stages are not only volumes for the remaining decades but similar sets for short films and newsreels. The AFI has finally come to its senses (and proper sense of purpose). Welcome back.
- David Bartholomew, NYPL
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Movies may not be bigger and better than ever, but the books about them certainly are.A huge three-volume set is the latest in a marvelous reference series an understaffed AFI crew has been working on doggedly for more than 30 years.An irreplaceable contribution to American film." -- Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1504 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (January 9, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520063015
• ISBN-13: 978-0520063013
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.9 x 3.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,914,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)