A classic account of the prehistory and early years of cinema in Britain. This new paperback edition provides a fascinating account of the rich and hitherto hidden history of the origins of film.

Michael Chanan is a film maker, writer and teacher. A music critic in the early 1970s, when he directed documentaries on music for the BBC, he went on to make several films in Latin America during the 1980s. He is the author of The Cuban Image (on Cuban cinema) and of Musica Practica and Repeated Takes (on the social practice of music and the recording industry) and he is a member of the editorial board of Vertigo, an independent film and television magazine.

Preface to the second edition Part 1 The arrival of moving pictures 1 The site of film 2 The sight of film Part 2 The dialectic of invention 3 The conditions of invention 4 Theories of perception 5 Photographic development 6 Patent business 7 Celluloid muse Part 3 Culture and economics 8 The production of consumption 9 Music hall and popular culture10 Culture and politics in the middle classes Part 4 The early years 11 Market competition and industrial growth 12 The foundations of the film idiom 13 Epilogue: The dream that kicks