pt. 1. Early cinema. The invention and early years of the cinema, 1880s-1904 -- The international expansion of the cinema, 1905-1912 -- National cinemas, Hollywood classicism, and World War I, 1913-1919 -- pt. 2. The late Silent Era, 1919-1929. France in the 1920s -- Germany in the 1920s -- Soviet cinema in the 1920s -- The late Silent Era in Hollywood, 1920-1928 -- International trends of the 1920s -- pt. 3. The development of sound cinema, 1926-1945. The introduction of sound -- The Hollywood studio system, 1930-1945 -- Other studio systems -- Cinema and the state: The USSR, Germany, and Italy, 1930-1945 -- France, 1930-1945 -- Leftist, documentary, and experimental cinemas, 1930-1945.

pt. 4. The Postwar Era, 1946-1960s. American cinema in the Postwar Era, 1946-1967 -- Postwar European cinema: neorealism and other trends -- Postwar European cinema: France, Scandinavia, and Britain -- Postwar cinema beyond the West -- Art cinema and the idea of authorship -- New waves and young cinemas, 1958-1967 -- Documentary and experimental cinema in the Postwar Era, 1945--Mid-1960s -- pt. 5. The contemporary cinema: since the 1960s. Third World cinema, 1960s-1970s -- Critical political cinema of the 1960s and 1970s -- Documentary and experimental film since the late 1960s -- Hollywood's fall and rise: since the 1960s -- New cinemas and new developments: Europe, The USSR, and the Pacific since the 1970s -- New cinemas in developing countries since the 1970s.