Nowell-Smith has assembled an impressive array of around eighty film historians contributing detailed articles based on their specialist expertise of this or that film movement, film genre, or national cinema...the Oxford History is destined to join the other global histories on the college library shelves and to play a significant role in film history courses...It is a scholarly work in ... Read morethe sense that the individual contributions have a depth deriving from the special expertise of the various contributors...students need to consult the kind of in-depth material available on specific areas of cinema impressively presented by the Oxford History in order to deepen and extend their knowledge and perception of the complexities of film form and cinema history./Tom Ryall/Screen 38:3 Autumn 1997. the most concerted effort to date by cinematic academia to re-establish links with a larger public by dispensing with the usual rebarbative jargon ... The ground covered is immense.
Philip French, The Observer
The 1996 book destined for the longest life on my shelf is Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's Oxford History of World Cinema, which has been many years in gestation ... and turns out to have been worth the long wait. This finely produced doorstopper deals with stars, studios and the cultural and industrial dimensions of cinema over the last hundred years.
The Observer
an essential guide for all serious cinema enthusiasts
Flicks
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's encyclopedic book is a model of clear editorial organisation in which the essays of more than 80 contributors are marshalled into an illuminating mosaic. Sharp economic analysis and informed political discussion are interspersed with elegant scholarly commentary on, for instance, the rise of the cinematic avant-garde. There are also crisp, informative essays on animation and on the technical innovations which have played such a part in the growth of cinema.
The Economist
edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith has no equal in size or substance ... Lucidly and interestingly written, detailed and authoritative, it is a weighty reference book that is indispensable to all serious cinemagoers and those who watch films on television, and will give much pleasure to readers ... invaluable compilation.
Ronald Malone, Day by Day, October, 196
Here for the first time is a genuine history of world cinema, with world cinema underlined several times ... this is a magnificient book, an encyclopaedia unparalleled in its level of scholarship and erudition. Essays written by some 80-odd contributors have been organised and presented by editor Nowell-Smith in such a way that they tell the fascinating story of the origin and development of cinema in most parts of the world. Nowell-Smith offers a microcosm of the world's greatest movie talent ... invaluable book.
India Mail
The sight of a slab-like reference book, the title of which begins The Oxford ..., still inspires confidence. The Oxford History of World Cinema is a worthy addition to the stable.
Tom Aitken, The Tablet, 4/97
It takes expert account of social, political and economic forces and constraints, technical developments, the pressures and internal logic of studio systems and production units, conditions of distribution, exhibition and projection while doing justice to the individual talents of studio moguls, directors, producers, set and costume designers, composers, cameramen and - of course - performers before the cameras.
Siegbert Prawer, Oxford Magazine, Noughth Week, Trinity Term, 1997
The sight of a slab-like reference book, the title of which begins The Oxford ..., still inspires confidence. The Oxford History of World Cinema is a worthy addition to the stable. The writing is informative and clear ... I dislike the word "definitive", but the publishers are not making too large a claim when they splash it across the cover.
Tom Aitken, The Tablet
this appears to be the most exciting book you are likely to find if you are looking for a comprehensive publication which spans the past 100 years of cinema
Lella Richards, The Oxford Times
The Oxford History of World Cinema, truly international in its scope, is a most authoritative, up-to-date and wide-ranging history of world cinema.
Plays & Players, 1 August 1997
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's encyclopedic book is a model of clear editorial organisation in which the essays of more than 80 contributors are marshalled into an illuminating mosaic.
The Economist
Amazingly good value from an enormously ambitious book.
The Guardian
Truely an exhaustive study and Nowell-Smith's keen editorial eye misses nothing. A stupendous achievement-with an oversized index and bibliography-that will appeal to film-goer or scholar. Enormous in scope and detailed to a fault, this research study reflects years of preperation. Look no further than Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's new book.
Rbert Fyne, Book Reviews, Keen College/Historical Journal of film, Radio and Television, Vol.18, No. 1, 1998.
this is a volume to delight cineastes
Books Magazine
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