A History of Narrative Film
Sophisticated in its analytical content, current and comprehensive in its coverage of all aspects of film and filmmaking, and informed throughout by fascinating historical and cultural contexts, A History of Narrative Film is widely acknowledged to be the definitive text in the field.
The Fourth Edition adds an entire chapter on computer-generated imaging, updates filmographies for nearly all living directors mentioned in the text, and includes major new sections that both revisit old content and introduce contemporary trends and movements.
Comprehensive Coverage
- Important Filmmakers—includes all major directors from cinema’s beginnings to the present—from D. W. Griffith, Sergei Eisenstein, and John Ford to Akira Kurosawa, Jean-Luc Godard, and Jane Campion.
- International Scope—discusses the major movements in international cinema, including Expressionism, film noir, das neue Kino, the French "New Wave," and Dogme95, and covers a wider range of national cinemas than other books.
- Analytical Depth—provides sophisticated analysis of the monumental touchstones of world cinema, among them The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Battleship Potemkin, October, Citizen Kane, Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Solid, Current Scholarship
Both an outstanding textbook and a trusted reference, A History of Narrative Film contains up-to-date filmographies, a thorough bibliography, an extensive index, and a complete glossary of cinematic terms, making it the best resource for serious students of film history.
Cultural and Historical Contexts
A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition, analyzes specific films, directors, and trends within broad cultural and historical contexts, discussing, for example, the following:
- the relationship between Soviet montage and Marxist dialectic
- the social context surrounding D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation
- Hollywood during and after the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigations
- Nazi Germany and cinematic propaganda
- student uprisings in France in 1968 and the emergence of the "New Wave"
- the Vietnam War and the portrayal of violence in 1970s cinema
- the dawn of the personal computer and its impact on film’s production, distribution, and consumption
- the economics of filmmaking
New Chapter on CGI
Chapter 21, "Hollywood Enters the Digital Domain," offers a thorough and fascinating account of the origins and development of computer-generated imaging and its implications for the future of filmmaking.
A New Look
Completely redesigned, A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition, now offers a more readable two-column page design and larger, more pedagogically informed illustrations.
Test Bank
Now contains over 1,000 multiple-choice questions delivered with Chariot™ software.
Norton Resource Library
The Norton Resource Library features Web-ready teaching materials for WebCT, Blackboard, or personal-course page formats. View the available resources for this title.
