Introduction

Abstract

The New Film History is a collection of essays bringing together some of the latest research in American, British and European film history. It is not intended as a comprehensive history of film: there are already enough surveys providing a historical overview of the development of the medium from its origins to the present.1 Our collection is a close up rather than a long shot: it presents the fruits of current research in a series of self-contained case studies that are nevertheless linked by common themes and methods. The intellectual context of this volume, as indicated in its title, is the ‘New Film History’: each contributor is engaged in original research that advances our knowledge of the field. The chapters herein contain the fruits of new and often ground-breaking research that represents the intellectual issues currently at stake in the study of film history. The book’s subtitle — sources, methods, approaches — indicates that it is based on the principle of empirical investigation and inquiry: this is a work of historical scholarship that emphasizes the critical analysis of primary sources relating to the production and reception of feature films. Film history is both like and unlike other types of history. It is similar in so far as it is concerned with historical structures and processes: the film historian focuses on the cultural, aesthetic, technological and institutional contexts of the medium.