What would you pay or risk to see a movie? In inflation-racked Germany after World War I, people paid for film tickets with lumps of coal. In Paris in 1896, audiences gasped at one of the very first films, of a train chugging toward the camera. They feared it would crash through the screen, yet were thrilled by the spectacle.
A matter of life and death, cinema was an instant sensation. In Europe it attracted not only lifelong fans but also visionary artists. On a par with, or ahead of, directors in the U.S., they created film art. Color, sound, musical...
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