A Grammar of the Film: An Analysis of Film Technique

Originally published in England in 1935, this book is an attempt to isolate the fundamental principles of film art and to teach in concrete detail how these principles are well or badly applied in the production of films.

This essential task, shirked or derided by most film critics today, Spottiswoode executed with skill and perception. He traced the history of the new medium, analyzed the aesthetic factors governing proper use of camera angle and movement, cuts, dissolves, sound, and other...