Acting & Cinema
A Short History of the Movies
A train in a Paris basement, the silent clowns, the talkies, and the new waves
The Lumières · Méliès · Chaplin · Godard · 4 chapters · 14 min read
A train in a Paris basement, the clowns of the silent era, the talkies and the studios, and the waves that broke them.
Free to read: every chapter below is open
From a train in Paris to the blockbuster
- 01The Night Cinema BeganOn a basement in Paris, a train that frightened nobody, and a conjurer who saw a trick.
- 02The Silent Era Was Never SilentOn an art that was never quiet, two clowns who wrote with their bodies, and a masterpiece nobody can watch innocently.
- 03Talkies and the Studio MachineOn a mostly silent talkie, the legend of the ruined stars, and the factory that owned the actors.
- 04New Waves and the BlockbusterOn cinema rebuilt from the street, critics who picked up cameras, and the shark that changed the business.