Table of Contents

Chapter One In the beginning, there was a man turning a crank
Chapter Two The invention of celluloid and the first hunters of moving images
Chapter Three Thomas A. Edison: from the Kinetograph to the Kinetoscope
Chapter Four The invention of the Cinématographe Lumière
Chapter Five Méliès and the Wonderbox
Chapter Six Machines and mechanisms
Chapter Seven On and off screen
Chapter Eight Work on the set. The birth of montage and the discovery of the film set
Chapter Nine Camera movements
Chapter Ten Close-ups, details
Chapter Eleven Towards a grammar and a syntax of narrative
Chapter Twelve Silent Movies
Chapter Thirteen Cinema Talks
Chapter Fourteen Cinema and digital

About the Author

Carlo Montanaro (1946) has always researched and written about systems for the technological reproduction of images. A former professor and director of the Venice Academy of Fine Arts and Venice Ca 'Foscari University, since 2014, through his Cultural Association Archivio Carlo Montanaro, he runs La Fabbrica del Vedere which houses his collections of films, books, photographs, machinery, artefacts and memorabilia. It is, moreover, a venue for exhibitions, meetings and workshops. As an expert in audiovisual media he is regularly involved in the organisation of exhibitions, festivals and reviews (The Venice Biennale and Film Festival, Pordenone Silent Film Festival), as a writer he has contributed to newspapers, magazines and anthological editions. He founded and edits the periodical All'Archimede.