A History of Cinema

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Table of Contents English translation in progress... For now check the Pages on Filmmakers and a Quick Summary of the history of cinema up to the 1970s.

Indice Generale Q1: Cinema d'Appendice Cinema Romantico Realismo liberale Naturalismo Espressionismo Q2: Hollywood (USA) Cinema Surrealista (France) Futurismo (Soviet Union) Q3: Nuova Oggettivita' (Germany) Cinema comico Mitteleuropa Q4: Melodramma Horror Musical Gangster Q5: Realismo poetico Realismo sociale Q6: Western Commedia Documentario Star System Q7: Shimnu Geki Esistenzialismo Neorealismo Q8: India Surrealismo spagnolo Q9: Black Humour Esistenzialismo scandinavo Q10: Commedia all' italiana Q11: Disgelo Q12: Esistenzialismo storico Q13: Nouvelle Vague Q14: Free cinema Q15: Sensismo Neue Cinema Q16: Nova vlna Cinema Ungherese Cinema dei Balcani Q17: Cinema Polacco Cinema Iberico Cinema Scandinavo Q18: America Latina Australia Q19: Widescreen Cinema Animazione Musical Melodramma Sociale Commedia Q20: Western Q21: Cinema del Crimine Q22: Bellico Neorealismo democratico Film Noir Scuola di New York Q23: New American Cinema (Avantgarde) Q24: Cinema del Terrore Q25: America Latina Q26: Hollywood in the 1970s Cinema d' appendice (1) Lumiere Zecca Melies Feuillade Reynaud Cohl Cinema romantico (film storico, kolossal) (1) Pastrone Realismo liberale (1) Blackton Garnier Griffith Ince DeMille Porter Naturalismo (1) Sjostrom Stiller Christensen Gad Molander Dreyer Espressionismo (1) Wegener Wiene Leni Mayer Robinson Grune Martin Czinner Murnau Lang Hollywood (2) Pickford Dwan Thalberg Gish Swanson Nielsen Negri Fairbanks Cinema surrealista (2) Epstein L'Herbier Gance Cocteau Clair Delluc Dulac Mozzuchin Kirsanov Vigo Futurismo (2) Protazanov Kulesov Vertov Ejzenstein Pudovkin Dovzenko Kozincev Ermler Jutkevic Room Ekk Barnet Nuova Oggettivita' (3) Pabst Rahn Dupont Ruttman Dudow Jutzi Sagan Forst Cinema comico (3) Linder Sennett Chaplin Keaton Lloyd Laurel Marx Mitteleuropa (3) Stroheim Curtiz Lubitsch Milestone Sternberg Mamoulian Dietrich Melodramma (4) Borzage Stahl Fleming Vidor Garbo Horror (4) Browning Whale Schoedsack Freund Ulmer Lewton Jacques Tourneur Musical (4) Berkeley Astaire Gangster (4) Leroy Robinson Cagney Bacon Realismo poetico (5) Duvivier Feyder Gabin Jouvet Renoir Gremillon Carne` Prevert Realismo sociale (5) Medvedkin Rajzman Donskoj Zarkhi Aleksandrov Romm Commedia (5) Fields Hawks Cukor Potter McCarey Stevens Capra Hepburn Stewart Grant Sturges Western (6) Barker Cruze King Ford Walsh Wellman Wayne Cooper Fonda Documentario (6) Flaherty Grierson Jennings Ivens Strand Star System (6) Brooks West Crawford Harlow Heyworth Davis Gable Grant Shimnu Geki (7) Murata Kaeriyama Mizoguchi Kinugasa Uchida Ito Ozu Gosho Ichikawa Kurosawa Kinoshita Shindo Honda Esistenzialismo (7) Allegret AutantLara Ophuls Becker Clouzot Bresson Delannoy Clement Tati Philippe Neorealismo (8) Camerini BLasetti Zavattini DeSica Castellani Lattuada Magnani Rossellini Visconti Zampa DeSantis India (8) Kapoor Sen Roy Ray Ghatak Surrealismo spagnolo (8) Bardem Berlanga Bunuel Black Humour (9) Olivier Laughton Guinness Leigh Hitchcock Asquith Reed Lean Lee Thompson Powell Hamer Mackendrick Dearden Neame Crichton Clayton Fisher Esistenzialismo scandinavo (9) Henning-Jensen Sjoberg Sjoman Mattson Zetterling Ullman Bergman Bergman Commedia all' italiana (10) Toto Sordi Manfredi Brusati Germi Monicelli Comencini Risi Leone Wertmuller Disgelo (11) Kalatozov Abuladze Paradzanov Alov Cuchraj Bondarcuk Kulidzanov Chutsiev Rjazanov Loteanu Sengelaja Averback Michalkov A. Michalkov N. Ioseliani Danelja Talankin Tarkovskij Suksin Sokurov Esistenzialismo storico (11-12) Mastroianni Antonioni Fellini Rosi Petri Bolognini Pasolini Olmi Scola Ferreri Taviani Bellocchio Bertolucci Cervi Brass Cavani Citti Avati Moretti DelMonte Piscicelli Nouvelle Vague (13) Moreau Bardot Deneuve Schneider Montand Melville Franju Chabrol Godard Malle Rivette Rohmer RobbeGrillet Maurice Pialat Duras Varda Lelouch Tavernier Goretta Tanner DeBroca Delvaux Resnais Truffault New cinema (14) Redgrave Christie Niven Richardson Reisz Schlesinger Anderson Ivory Caine Connery Sellers Young Watkins Lester Fuest Yates Hyams Peter Guillermin Furie Loach Russell Boorman Roeg Winner Apted Bridges Parker Ridley Scott Greenaway Frears Eyre Newell Tony Scott Cox Alex Forsyth Bill Davies Terence Jarman Derek Peter Chelsom Mike Figgis Terry Gilliam Sensismo (15) Imamura Teshingahara Kuri Yoshida Terayama Yanagimachi Hani Masumura Wakamatsu Oshima Neue Cinema (15) Kluge Straub Moorse Fleischmann Schlondorff Hauff Syderberg Fassbinder Herzog Adlon Wolfgang Petersen Wenders Schroeter Schmid Nova vlna (16) Machaty Zeman Trnka Vavra Schorm Forman Nemec Jakubisko Svankmajer Cinema ungherese (16) Fabri Jancso Kovacs Bacso Gabor Gyongyossi Gaal Szabo Cinema dei Balcani (16) Guney Mimica Makavejev Cacoyannis Anghelopulos Costa Gravas Kusturica Cinema polacco (17) Ford Munk Kawalerowicz Borowczyn Has Wajda Polanski Skolimowski Zanussi Cinema Iberico (17) Bigas Luna Saura Almodovar DeOliveira Cinema Scandinavo (17) Donner Widerberg Troell Breien America Latina (18) Jodorowsky Pereira Guerra Rocha Babenco Ruiz Australia (18) Weir Beresford Schepisi Animazione (19) Disney Jones McLaren Musical (19) Minnelli Donen Sidney Kelly Walters Fosse Wise Melodramma (19) Sirk Chayefsky Wyler Commedia Lemmon MacLaine Matthau Lewis Tashlin Wilder Mankiewicz Quine Edwards Western (20) Peck Douglas Daves Boetticher Sturges J. Mann A. Peckinpah Brooks Douglas Gries Roy Hill Silverstein Hellman Cinema del Crimine (21) Mitchum Leigh Janet Marvin Litvak Preminger Dassin Polonsky Ray Fuller Huston Aldrich Post Siegel Fleischer Neorealismo Democratico (22) Dmytryk Rossen Lancaster Robson Kramer Ritt Losey Poitier Film Noir Bogart Hathaway Siodmak Mate Karlson Welles New York School Strand Pakula Biberman Mulligan Zinnemann Kazan New American Cinema Deren Anger Brakhage Mekas Markopoulos Snow Clarke Warhol Morrisey Wexler Cassavetes Lost Generation Monroe Benedek Brando Dean Novak Wood Taylor Poe Newman Science Fiction Arnold Roddenberry Nimoy Neumann Wilcox Heston Lucas New Horror Cinema Steven Spielberg Latin America Humberto Mauro Alberto Cavalcanti Lima Barreto Mario Peixoto Walter Khouri Gustavo Dahl Nelson Pereira Ruy Guerra Carlos Diegues Leon Hirszman Miguel Littin Jorge Sanjinez Hector Babenco Glauber Rocha Raoul Ruiz Alejandro Jodorowsky War movies of the 1970s and 1980s: Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) and Ted Kotcheff's First Blood (1982), the first film of the "Rambo" franchise, Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986), all three set in the Vietnam War, Roger Spottiswoode's Under Fire (1983) and Oliver Stone's Salvador (1986), both set in the Sandinista revolution of Nicaragua, Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields (1984), set in Cambodia during the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge regime, The State of Cinema in 2022 Godard once said: “The dream of Hollywood is to make one film, and it's television that makes it, but it is distributed everywhere”. That’s precisely what happened in the 21st century. Hollywood started making the same movie over and over again (car chase, love story, super-hero) often through an endless series of sequels. What movies were lacking in imagination they compensated with effects. Ironically, the flood of new titles via the new medium of “streaming”, the sheer abundance of choice, had nullified art. The audience didn’t rebel. Instead it slowly but steadily got numb to the utter un-originality of the movies, even addicted to predictability in the plot. By the 2020s, the number of people capable of understanding a nuanced, complex, sophisticated film plummeted, and so it had become a vicious circle: the studios were making utterly pointless movies for an audience that demanded precisely that kind of movie, the exact same one, over and over again. The youngest in that audience had been raised on YouTube videos (and soon on even shorter TikTok videos). No surprise that many of the youngest valued videogames more than movies: there was a lot more complexity in videogames than in Hollywood movies. The more competent critics were accused of being out-of-touch with most moviegoers, and pretentious at best. This ended up favoring a new generation of critics who were equally unpretentious and incompetent. People hated the critics who were trying to warn people about the dangers of watching only inanity. People hated the critics who didn’t share their opinions, as if the role of the critic was merely to repeat what people posted on social media and on rating websites, i.e. blindly praise the most publicized and better distributed films, typically the blockbuster films, obviously a much easier job than watching 100s of films from all over the world.

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