Learning on Screen100 Ideas That Changed Film
By David Parkinson (Laurence King Publishing, February 2012). 216 pages. ISBN: 978-1856697934 (paperback). £19.95
About the Author: Lucy Bolton is Teaching Fellow in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London and the author of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema and Thinking Women (Palgrave, 2011) and co-editor (with Christina Siggers Manson) of Italy On Screen: National Identity and Italian Imaginary (Peter Lang, 2010)
E-mail: l.c.bolton@qmul.ac.uk
This thought provoking journey through a hundred of cinema’s step-changes is refreshing and informative
In the introduction, David Parkinson describes his book as an alternative history of cinema. This bold claim is based on the proposal that there is a core set of ideas that lies behind the production, distribution, exhibition, consumption and appreciation of film from its beginnings to the present day. Adopting a perspective that challenges the centrality of Hollywood, this thought provoking journey through a hundred of cinema’s step-changes is refreshing and informative. Even for those well versed in the historical origins of cinema and the development of the film industry in America, Parkinson offers numerous fresh perspectives on familiar cinematic concepts and brings them together usefully in an original collection.
The selection includes significant leaps forward such as the kinetoscope and 3D, but also major theoretical approaches including auteur theory and feminist theory. The book also highlights industrial developments in production and distribution, and discusses the seminal genres of film noir and heritage films. It is clear that in this conceptual compilation there is not the breadth or depth of coverage that a dictionary or encyclopaedia could provide, and the basis for inclusion and exclusion is never accounted for: simply that the theories, techniques and strategies therein are considered by the author to be key in the progression of film ‘from sideshow to institution’. Beginning with magic lanterns and ending with computer-generated imagery, the double-page entries contain short textual accounts and well-chosen photographic illustrations. The book is well produced and a pleasure to read, with each topic succinctly discussed in broad but informative terms.
