Screen Ages is a valuable guide for students exploring the complex and vibrant history of US cinema and showing how this film culture has grown, changed and developed.


Covering key periods from across American cinema history, John Alberti explores the social, technological and political forces that have shaped cinematic output and the varied impacts cinema of on US society.


Each chapter has a series of illuminating key features, including:








`Now Playing', focusing on films as cinematic events, from The Birth of a Nation to Gone with the Wind to Titanic, to place the reader in the social context of those viewing the films for the first time







`In Development', exploring changing genres, from the melodrama to the contemporary super hero movies,







`The Names Above and Below the Title', portraying the impact and legacy of central figures, including Florence Lawrence, Orson Welles and Wes Anderson







Case studies, analyzing key elements of films in more depth







Glossary terms featured throughout the text, to aid non-specialist students and expand the readers understanding of changing screen cultures.





Screen Ages illustrates how the history of US cinema has always