Reviews
“The Promise of Cinema effectively returns the contemporary reader to this time of limitless possibilities for this new and untested medium. And with that, the reader finds the surprising, delicious frosting on the cupcake of this amazing collection: the editors have sought, through their selection, placement, and contextualization of these various, sometimes disparate entries to build a bridge from the discrete realm of film theory to the ever-expanding arena of media studies. In so doing, the editors have given The Promise of Cinema an expansive life as a firstrate media studies resource.”—German Studies Review
"A trailblazing volume. The Promise of Cinema is already an indispensable resource for scholars and students of early German film cultures. There is no doubt that it will continue to be a central feature in scholarship on early German film cultures in the future."—Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies
"Even the well-informed film scholar and the resourceful cinephile are likely to discover new material and striking juxtapositions. The texts assembled here reward repeated reading."—The Times Literary Supplement
“This extraordinary book expands all horizons of cinema. Its utopian vision inspires us to imagine a film art for the twenty-first century.”—Alexander Kluge, filmmaker and author of
Cinema Stories
“A treasure trove of insights and ideas, this book uncovers the excitement cinema generated as the art form of modernity. Film studies may take years to digest the richness this volume contains—and I believe it will never be quite the same afterward.” —Tom Gunning, author of The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity
“Opening entirely new pathways to the research and teaching of German film culture, this carefully edited sourcebook reveals the fantastic wealth of early ideas and thoughts on cinema.”—Gertrud Koch, author of Siegfried Kracauer: An Introduction
“On page after page, a vibrant debate, previously lost in archives, comes to life again. This book changes our idea of what cinema was and is.”—Francesco Casetti, author of Eye of the Century: Film, Experience, Modernity
“An indispensable and revelatory resource for all who are exploring the political and aesthetic genealogy of the media culture we inhabit today.”—Jonathan Crary, author of Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture
"This remarkable collection appearing at this historical moment invites us to think about cinema before its first German theorists knew what it might become, just as we wonder what the cinema will become today as it transforms itself all over again." —Jane M. Gaines, author of Contested Culture: The Image, the Voice, and the Law
"Any form of memory worthy of the term ought to address the future even more than the past. The great strength of this collection lies in its ability to make one century speak to another, thereby evoking the future of film today."— Raymond Bellour, author of Between-the-Images
Read More >