30-Second Cinema: The 50 most important ideas, genres, and people in the history of movie-making, each explained in half a minute

by Pamela Hutchinson

Are you an art-movie buff or a blockbuster enthusiast? Can you reel off a list of New Wave masterpieces, or are you more interested in classic Westerns? Most of us love the movies in one form or another, but very few of us have the all-round knowledge we’d like. 30-Second Cinema offers an immersion course, served up in neat, entertaining shorts. These 50 topics deal with cinema’s beginnings, with its growth as an industry, with key stars and producers, with global movements—from German Expressionism to New Hollywood—and with the movies as a business. By the time you’ve worked your way through, you’ll be able to identify the work of George Melies, define auteur theory or mumblecore in a couple of pithy phrases, and you’ll have broadened your knowledge of global cinema to embrace not only Bollywood but Nollywood, too. All in the time it takes to watch a couple of trailers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, History

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 14, 2019

Reviews

[isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love the art style so much!!!!!! FILMS YES PLEASE ALL FILMS TELL ME ABOUT THEM

[Matty Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well presented whistle stop tour of the most important/influential movements, directors, actors and technological advancements in the history of cinema. All though it may not be as detailed as some may like it’s a great jumping on point for anyone interested in learning more about cinema history.

[Emma Prost · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je passe mon tour sur ce bouquin, moi qui voulait en apprendre davantage sur le cinéma et ses acteurs, ses mouvements, ses réalisateurs je ne suis pas servie avec ce livre.
L'ensemble est lacunaire, il y a de nombreuses répétitions au mot par mot (j'ai compté et le même paragraphe sur les Oscar apparaît de façon identique a cinq reprises !). L'ensemble présente les choses très sommairement, il n'y a pas toujours le nom du réalisateur des films mentionnés ou leur date de sortie. J'ai appris deux trois choses mais vraiment ce n'était pas terrible.

[Xanthe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly as the title says - really great, concise explanations of ideas, genres and people in cinema, since its birth. This really helped introduce concepts to me and was very easy to understand.

[Estelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good short introduction with great artwork. I don't really understand why there was so much repetition of terms in the glossaries to each section, though.

[Arjun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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