The cinema is probably the most widely viewed art form in the world. It crosses cultural boundaries, political regimes, sex, race and perhaps most importantly time. Whatever the social background of the audience member, there will always be something that the viewer can empathise with on a social, cultural or personal level.

Cinema can affect the way we, as the audience, view events and the world around us. It can change our perceptions of society and even re-write our own history. As the world has developed, so has the cinema. Evolving and adapting, staving off competition from the television industry, gained a larger audience that the theatre and firmly entrenched itself in our daily lives.

The history of the cinema is a fascinating one. From its beginnings as a cheap parlour “trick” and fairground attraction it has now become a multi-billion dollar industry that crosses every continent. The cinema has embraced new technology and spawned its own which the public, in turn, has embraced. The question, that this series of essays hopes to answer, is does cinema actually reflect life or does is make an art form of an otherwise dull subject?

Is the version of life cinema portrays on its larger-than-life screen just a glossy picture of celluloid happiness, a true reflection of life in the real world or a cleverly designed story to cover social problems and make people forget their troubles? Can cinema make us forget our historical blunders, providing our very own set of rose-tinted spectacles for us to view our mistakes with? Or does it show us a “warts-and-all” perspective?

Throughout our history, society’s views on certain aspects of human behaviour and its own history have changed; women receiving the vote, the abolition of slavery and apartheid, the end of the cold war. Has cinema accepted this or did cinema itself assist in breaking down the barriers?

Of course, cinema is a business. In its mass-produced form it is run by a select few – predominantly male – who decide what films are to be made, the way they are made and even what the target audience should be. So what gives these select few the right to decide what we, as a paying audience see? Naturally, a films release ultimately depends on the censors (see my essay on censorship for more information on the subject), but are the studio executives deciding what we’d like to see, or dictating what we will see?

This series of essays hopes to answer these questions, and a few more besides, by looking at the development of the cinema in a historic, cultural and social context.

I hope you enjoy reading these essays as much as I have enjoyed researching them, and remember to keep checking back each month for the next installment! If you have any comments or questions on subjects raised then I’d love to hear from you. Don’t hesitate to get in touch via e-mail or the films thread in the Guilds section of the forums.

This months essay: 1890 – 1920: The Birth of the Silent Era.