This is an excellent short guide that manages to cram in a vast amount of information into a very small space. It never pretends to offer a history of film but is a superb resource for getting students to think about film as a medium, and to think about what makes film distinct as a menas of conveying information, emotion, ideas at the same time as generating wonder, admiration, controversy, or ire. An unrivalled introduction to thinking about film as a medium. / Matthew Woodcock, University of East Anglia