Customer Reviews

Discoveries: Birth of the Motion Picture (Discoveries (Harry Abrams))

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Illuminating and informative book about the birth of the motion picture. Written by a Frenchman it concentrates on the development of the motion picture in France but other countries are not ignored. This is an interesting and original account of the founding fathers of the motion picture(and founding mothers too, a section is devoted to the worlds first woman filmaker Alice Guy, whos first film was The Cabbage Fairy.) Beautiful colored photographs and an engaging,lively text make this a must have novel for film and history buffs.

I had to put in an appropriately short plug for this superb Abrams condensed tour-de-force:

This tiny (5" x 7") bookie packs more into its 174 pages of 7 chapters plus 3 back matter sections PLUS comprehensive indexes than you would likely imagine. Not only are the images -- monochrome, repro hand-tinted where appropriate, and full color where posters and equipment is concerned -- uniformly stunning, but the tersely authoritative text is supplemented with 8 invaluable original "documents" with titles as far-ranging as: "Lumiere Remembers"; "A World of Ideas"; "Tricks of the Trade"; and pieces on war, erotic, and advertising flicks. Plus, of course, the one on the first woman filmmaker. Sounds like a gotta-have? It IS!