It moves geographically and chronologically to paint a picture of the cinema outside of corporate American cinema (formerly known as the brand "Hollywood"--can we still consider it as "Hollywood" when the big studios are gone and replaced by transnational corporations?)
This is a collection of essays that cover unique moments in each national/regional cinema that is being covered. The writing is engaging and the topics are wide-ranging. I would have wished for essays on Korean and Mexican cinema, but still, this is an important collection.
Here is Rutgers University Press's description:
Traditions in World Cinema brings together a colorful and wide ranging collection of world cinematic traditions-national, regional, and global-all of which are in need of introduction, investigation and, in some cases, critical reassessment. The movements described range from well-known traditions such as German expressionism, Italian neorealism, French, British, and Czech new wave, and new Hollywood cinema to those of emerging significance, such as Danish Dogma, postcommunist cinema, Brazilian post-Cinema Novo, new Argentine cinema, pre-independence African film traditions, Israeli persecution films, new Iranian cinema, Hindi film songs, Chinese wenyi pian melodrama, Japanese horror, and global found-footage cinema.
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I highly recommend this book, especially since it is very reasonably priced at $23.95 for the paperback copy. Besides being informative it was very enjoyable to read and it includes filmographies/bibliographies at the end of each section.
The editors assured me that this is but the first of a series and I look forward to later editions (it was originally published by Edinburgh University Press and is distributed in the US by Rutgers)
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