Abstract
In the space of a century, the cinema has grown from a curiosity exhibited in the fairgrounds of western Europe and America to be part of a multi-billion-dollar business. In the early years, cinema was dominated by buccaneering capitalists like Charles Pathé; today it is an integral part of a global electronics industry which is likely to expand massively in the twenty-first century, with feature films making up a ‘significant element’ alongside sports programming and news gathering, and playing ‘a leading role in the growth of fresh ancillary and new technology-driven markets’ (Finney, 1). In this introduction we seek to trace the means by which cinema in Europe gradually became a vital component of the culture industries and, in the process, acquired a symbolic function in Europe’s fight to protect itself against economic and cultural domination by the United States.
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© 2000 Jill Forbes and Sarah Street
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Forbes, J., Street, S. (2000). Economics and Politics. In: European Cinema. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-08034-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-08034-9_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-75210-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-08034-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)