An alternative introduction to cinema, focusing on the stories of 50 key films that consciously questioned the boundaries, challenged the status quo and made shockwaves we are still feeling today.

Discover films that dared to be different, risked reputations and put careers in jeopardy. This is what happens when filmmakers take tradition and rip it up.
 
FilmQuake introduces 50 movies that shook the cinematic world, telling thefascinating stories behind theircreation, reception and legacy.

From unbelievable developments in technology (Citizen Kane, 1941) to feminist triumphs (Wanda, 1970); films that kickstarted New Queer Cinema (Paris is Burning, 1990) to others that challenged lawmakers (A Short Film About Killing, 1988) – FilmQuake presents the movies thatquestioned boundarieschallenged the status quo andmade shockwaves we are still feeling today.

From film's first innovators, people like theLumière brothers, whose short film of a train arriving was reported to have terrified audiences in 19th century Paris, through iconoclasts like Sergei Eisenstein and Luis Buñuel, to titans of 20th century cinema likeAlfred Hitchcock andJean-Luc Godard, discover the stories behind the films which incontrovertably changed the course of cinema forever.

Into the modern day, this book examines how filmmakers have addressed themes of prejudice and inequality, from the Black Lives Matter movement andJordan Peele's unmissable Get Out toBong Joon-ho's cutting study of the lives of the wealthy in Parasite, as well as innovative new cinematic techniques emerging in films like28 Days Later andBlair Witch Project.

In telling the history of cinema through the works that were truly disruptive, and explaining the context in which each was createdFilmQuake demonstrates the heart of modern film, which is to constantly question boundaries and challenge expectation.
 

This book is from the Culture Quake series, which looks into iconic moments of culture which truly created paradigm shifts in their respective fields.

Also available is ArtQuake, which tells the stories of 50 pivotal works that challenged consensus and broke daring new ground in the world of art, inspiring shock and scandal as they did so, but ultimately cementing themselves as truly great works of modern art.

Introduction
THE SHOCK OF THE NEW: 1895–1929
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station: Auguste and Louis Lumière
Women in Film
The Birth of a Nation: D.W. Griffith
Within Our Gates: Oscar Micheaux
Nosferatu: F.W. Murnau
German Expressionism
Nanook of the North: Robert Flaherty
Battleship Potemkin: Sergei Eisenstein
Soviet Cinema
The Passion of Joan of Arc: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Sound in Film
A WORLD IN FLUX: 1930–1959
The Golden Age: Luis Buñuel
Avant-Garde Cinema
L’Atalante: Jean Vigo
Triumph of the Will: Leni Riefenstahl
Propaganda on Film
The Great Dictator: Charles Chaplin
Citizen Kane: Orson Welles
Auteur Cinema
Rome, Open City: Roberto Rossellini
Italian Neorealism
Rashomon: Akira Kurosawa
Pather Panchali: Satyajit Ray
The Seventh Seal: Ingmar Bergman
Art Film
The Rise of Animation
Some Like It Hot: Billy Wilder
BREAKING ALL THE RULES: 1960–1979
Breathless: Jean-Luc Goddard
The French New Wave
Psycho: Alfred Hitchcock
New Adventures in Horror
Victim: Basil Dearden
Cleo from 5 to 7: Agnès Varda
The Battle of Algiers: Gillo Pontecorvo
Bonnie and Clyde: Arthur Penn
New Hollywood
2001: A Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick
Wanda: Barbara Loden
Feminist Film
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss: Melvin Van Peebles
Black Cinema in the US
Touki Bouki: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Cinema of Transgression
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles: Chantal Akerman
Jaws: Steven Spielberg
Apocalypse Now: Francis Ford Coppola
Developments in Sound
INDEPENDENCE AND INDUSTRY: 1980–1999
Fitzcarraldo: Werner Herzog
An Epic Cinema
Shoah: Claude Lanzmann
The Thin Blue Line: Errol Morris
A Short Film About Killing: Krzysztof Kieślowski
Changing the World
Do the Right Thing: Spike Lee
Paris is Burning: Jennie Livingston
New Queer Cinema
Daughters of the Dust: Julie Dash
Terminator 2: Judgment Day: James Cameron
Reservoir Dogs: Quentin Tarantino
US Indie Cinema
Chungking Express: Wong Kar-wai
Cinema in Hong Kong, China
Recent New Waves
La Haine: Mathieu Kassovitz
The Blair Witch Project: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez
Recent Horror
THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN: 2000–PRESENT
Russian Ark: Aleksandr Sokurov
Cinema and Time
Digital Cinema
Brokeback Mountain: Ang Lee
United 93: Paul Greengrass
Cinema Post-9/11
Tangerine: Sean Baker
Get Out: Jordan Peele
Film and Black Lives Matter
Change for the Future
Atlantics: Mati Diop
For Sama: Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts
Citizen Journalism
Parasite: Bong Joon-Ho

Glossary
Further Reading
Picture Credits
Index