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A Companion to Early Cinema is an authoritative reference on the subfield of early cinema. An international group of expert scholars interrogate major concerns in early cinema studies, such as exhibition, promotion, industry, pre-cinema, and film criticism, and take an ambitious look at ideas and themes that take the subject into the future.

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An authoritative and much-needed overview of the main issues in the field of early cinema from over 30 leading international scholars in the field
First collection of its kind to offer in one reference: original theory, new research, and reviews of existing studies in the field Features over 30 original essays from some of the leading scholars in early cinema and Film Studies, including Tom Gunning, Jane Gaines, Richard Abel, Thomas Elsaesser, and André Gaudreault
Caters to renewed interest in film studies´ historical methods, with strict analysis of multiple and competing sources, providing a critical re-contextualization of films, printed material and technologies
Covers a range of topics in early cinema, such as exhibition, promotion, industry, pre-cinema, and film criticism
Broaches the latest research on the subject of archival practices, important particularly in the current digital context

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List of contributors
Introduction
Nicolas Dulac, André Gaudreault, Santiago Hidalgo
I Early Cinema Cultures
1. The Culture Broth and the Froth of Cultures of So-called Early Cinema
André Gaudreault
2. Toward A History Of Peep Practice
Erkki Huhtamo
3. "We are Here and Not Here": Late Nineteenth Century Stage Magic and the Roots of Cinema in the Appearance (and Disappearance) of the Virtual Image
Tom Gunning
4. The Féerie between Stage and Screen
Frank Kessler
5. The Théâtrophone, an Anachronistic Hybrid Experiment or One of the First Immobile Traveler Devices?
Giusy Pisano
6. The "Silent" Arts: Modern Pantomime and the Making of an Art Cinema in Belle Époque Paris. The Case of Georges Wague and Germaine Dulac
Tami Williams
II Early Cinema Discourses7. First Discourses on Film and the Construction of a "Cinematic Episteme"
Fran‡ois Albera
8. The Discourses of Art in Early Film, or, Why Not Rancière?
Rob King
9. Sensationalism and Early Cinema
Annemone Ligensa
10. From Craft to Industry: Series and Serial Production Discourses and Practices in France
Laurent Le Forestier
11. Awareness of Film, Language and Self in Early American Film Publications
Santiago Hidalgo
12. Early Cinema and Film Theory
Roger Odin
III Early Cinema Forms
13. A Bunch of Violets
Ben Brewster
14. Modernity Stops at Nothing: The American Chase Film and the Specter of Lynching
Jan Olsson
15. "The Knowledge Which Comes in Pictures": Educational Films and Early Cinema Audiences
Jennifer Peterson
16. Motion Picture Color and Pathé-Frères: The Aesthetic Consequences of Industrialization
Charles O´Brien
IV Early Cinema Presentations
17. The European Fairground Cinema: (Re-)defining and (Re-)contextualizing the "Cinema of Attractions"
Joseph Garncarz
18. Early Film Programs: an Overture, Five Acts, and an Interlude
Richard Abel
19. "Half Real-Half Reel": Alternation Format Stage-and-Screen Hybrids
Gwendolyn Waltz
20. Advance Newspaper Publicity for the Vitascope and the Mass Address of Cinema´s Reading Public
Paul S. Moore
21. Storefront Theater Advertising and the Evolution of the American Film Poster
Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley
22. Bound by Cinematic Chains: Film and Prisons during the Early Era
Alison Griffiths
V Early Cinema Identities
23. Anonymity: Uncredited and Unknown in Early Cinema
Jane M. Gaines
24. The Invention of Cinematic Celebrity in Britain
Andrew Shail
25. The Film Lecturer
Germain Lacasse
26. Richard Hoffman: A Collector´s Archive
Richard Koszarski
VI Early Cinema Recollections
27. Early Films in the Age of Content; or, "Cinema of Attractions" Pursued by Digital Means
Paolo Cherchi Usai
28. Multiple Originals: The (Digital) Restoration and Exhibition of Early Films
Giovanna Fossati
29. Pointing Forward, Looking Back: Reflexivity and Deixis in Early Cinema and Contemporary Installations
Nanna Verhoeff
30. Is Nothing New? Turn of the Century Epistemes in Film History
Thomas Elsaesser
Index

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