This series of documentary shows which has been running on the Turner Classic Movies cable station in the United States, gives a very good if standard view of the history of motion pictures -- anyone who has read a lot on the subject will find many 'facts' offered which he or she 'knows' to be false.
Nonetheless, this is a very good introduction to the history of the movies and will give people just discovering old films a good idea of the general thrust of their evolution. Filled with sound bites from experts as well as clips and images, it shows, first that movies did no arise from nowhere, but grew out of half a millennium of technical evolution and the peculiar combination of events that led diverse people to become the leaders in what was the major entertainment industry for a good part of the 20th century.
Nonetheless, this is a very good introduction to the history of the movies and will give people just discovering old films a good idea of the general thrust of their evolution. Filled with sound bites from experts as well as clips and images, it shows, first that movies did no arise from nowhere, but grew out of half a millennium of technical evolution and the peculiar combination of events that led diverse people to become the leaders in what was the major entertainment industry for a good part of the 20th century.