Richard Abel's magisterial new book radically rewrites the history of French cinema between 1896 and 1914, particularly during the years when Path-Frres, the first major corporation in the new industry, led the world in film production and distribution. Based on extensive investigation of rare archival films and documents, and drawing on recent social and cultural histories of turn-of-the-century France and the United States, his book provides new insights into the earliest history of the cinema. Abel tells how early French film entertainment changed from a cinema of attractions to the narrative format that Hollywood would so successfully exploit. He describes the popular genres of the era-comic chases, trick films and feries, historical and biblical stories, family melodramas and grand guignol tales, crime and detective films-and shows the shift from short subjects to feature-length films. Cinema venues evolved along with the films as live music, color effects, and other new exhibiti