Cinema of Europe
Cinema of Europe refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Europe. The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the French Lumière brothers, who made the first public screening of a film on 28 December 1895, an event considered the birth of cinema, began motion picture exhibitions. The history of cinema in Germany can be traced back to the years of the medium's birth. Ottomar Anschütz held the first showing of life sized pictures in motion on 25 November 1894 at the Postfuhramt in Berlin. On 1 November 1895, Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil demonstrated their self-invented film projector, the Bioscop, at the Wintergarten music hall in Berlin. A 15-minute series of eight short films were shown – the first screening of films to a paying audience. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers. The Lumière brothers established the Cinematograph; which initiated the silent film era, a period where European cinema was a major commercial success. It remained so until the art-hostile environment of World War II. These notable discoveries provide a glimpse of the power of early European cinema and its long-lasting influence on cinema today.
Notable European early film movements include German expressionism, Soviet montage, French impressionist cinema, and Italian neorealism ; it was a period now seen in retrospect as "The Other Hollywood". War has triggered the birth of Art and in this case, the birth of cinema.
German expressionism evoked people's emotions through strange, nightmare-like visions and settings, heavily stylised and extremely visible to the eye. Soviet montage shared similarities too and created famous film edits known as the Kino-eye effect, Kuleshov effect and intellectual montage.
French impressionist cinema has crafted the essence of cinematography, as France was a film pioneering country that showcased the birth of cinema using the medium invented by the Lumière brothers. Italian neorealism designed the vivid reality through a human lens by creating low budget films outside directly on the streets of Italy. All film movements were heavily influenced by the war but that played as a catalyst to drive the cinema industry to its most potential in Europe.
The notable movements throughout early European cinema featured stylistic conventions, prominent directors and historical films that have influenced modern cinema until today. Below you will find a list of directors, films, film awards, film festivals and actors that were stars born from these film movements.
History
20th century
According to one study, "In the 1900s the European film industry was in good shape. European film companies pioneered both technological innovations such as projection, colour processes, and talking pictures, and content innovations such as the weekly newsreel, the cartoon, the serial, and the feature film. They held a large share of the US market, which at times reached 60 percent.The French film companies were quick in setting up foreign production and distribution subsidiaries in European countries and the US and dominated international film distribution before the mid-1910s. By the early 1920s, all this had changed. The European film industry only held a marginal share of the US market and a small share of its home markets. Most large European companies sold their foreign subsidiaries and exited from film production at home, while the emerging Hollywood studios built their foreign distribution networks."
The European Film Academy was founded in 1988 to celebrate European cinema through the European Film Awards annually.
Europa Cinemas
Founded on 12 February 1991 with funding from the MEDIA programme Creative Europe and from the CNC, France, Europa Cinemas is the first film theatre network focusing on European films. Its objective is to provide operational and financial support to cinemas that commit themselves to screen a significant number of European non-national films, to offer events and initiatives as well as promotional activities targeted at young audiences., Europa Cinemas had 3,131 screens across 1,216 cinemas, located in 738 cities and 43 countries. The president in 2024/2025 is Mathias Holtz, while Claude-Eric Poiroux is honorary president.
21st century
On 2 February 2000 Philippe Binant realised the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP Cinema technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris.Today US productions dominate the European market. On average European films are distributed in only two or three countries; US productions in nearly ten. The top ten most watched films in Europe between 1996 and 2016 were all US productions or co-productions. Excluding US productions, the most watched movie in that period was The Intouchables, a French production, like most of the other movies in the top ten. In 2016–2017 the only European film in the top ten of the most watched films in Europe was Dunkirk. Excluding it the European film with the best results was Paddington 2, which sold 9.1 million tickets.
French cinema
Early French cinema
Like the other forms of art, film cinema portrays the authenticity that faces several people. France can be considered one of the main pioneers of the entire global film industry. The proof of this claim that between 1895–1905 France invented the concept of cinema when the Lumière brothers first film screened on 28 December 1895, called The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, in Paris.It lasted only 50 seconds but it launched and gave birth to the new medium of expression in the film industry. Lumiére from France has been credited since 1895 and was recognized as the discoverer of the motion camera. However, despite other inventors preceding him, his achievement is often believed to be in the perspective of this creative era.
Lumiere's suitcase-sized cinematography, which was movable served as a film dispensation unit, camera, and projector all in one. During the 1890s, film cinemas became a few minutes long and commenced to consist of various shots too. Other pioneers were also French including Niépce, Daguerre, and Marey, during the 1880s they were able to combine science and art together to launch the film industry.
The pioneers of the French film were influenced by their historical heritage stemming from the need to express the narrative of a nation. The 19th century in France was a period of nationalism launched by the French Revolution. Marey invented the photo gun which was developed to function and be able to have a photographic paper of 150 images in motion. Emile Reynaud 1844-1918 was the founding father of animation.
The short-animated film Pantomimes Lumineuses exhibited during 1892 at the Musee Grevin was developed as a result of his invention, the Praxinoscope projector. This invention brought together colour and hand-drawn drawings. Gaumont was established as France's first film studio before Pathé and founded by Léon Gaumont. In 1907, Gaumont was the largest movie studio in the world, it also prompted the work of the first female filmmaker Guy-Blachéwho created the film L'enfant de la barricade.
Pre-and Post-World War I French Cinema
The pre-World War I period marked the influences of France's historical past with film not only galvanizing a period of advances in science and engineering but a need for a film to become a platform to explore the narrative of their culture and in doing so created a narcissistic platform. Before World War I, French and Italian cinema dominated the European cinema. Zecca, the director general at Pathé Frères perfected the comic version of the chase film which was inspired by Keystone Kops. Besides, Max Linder created a comic persona that profoundly influenced Charlie Chaplin's work.Other films that began pre-war in France also included The Assassination of the Duke of Guise as well as the film d'art movement in 1908. These films depicted the realities of human life especially within the European society. Moreover, French film produced costume spectacles that raised attention and brought global prominence before the start of World War I.
Approximately 70% of the global films were imported from Paris studios from Éclair, Gaumont, and Pathe before the war. However, as WWI commenced, the French film industry declined during the war because it lost many of its resources which were drained away to support the war. Besides, WWI blocked the exportation of French films forcing it to reduce large productions to pay attention to low finance film-making.
However, in the years that followed the war, American films increasingly entered the French market because the American film industry was not affected by the war as much. This meant that a total of 70% of Hollywood films were screened in France. During this period, the French film industry faced a crisis as the number of its produced features decreased and they were surpassed by their competitors including the United States of America and Germany.
Post World War II French cinema
After the end of World War II, the French cinema art commenced its formation of the modern image as well as recognizing its after-impacts. Following the establishment and growth of the American and German film industries during the post-WWI era as well as during Great Depression. Many German and American movies had taken the stage of the French and global market. Moreover, during WWII, the French film industry focused mainly on the production of anti-Nazi movies especially during the late 1940s as the war came to an end.After this era, French film industry directors commenced addressing the issues affecting humanism as well focused on the production of high-eminence entertaining films. In addition, the screening of French literary classics involved La Charterhouse and Rouge et le Noir attained spread great fame across the globe. Besides, Nowell-Smith asserts that one of the core cinema works that gained popularity during that period was Resnais' directed movie, Mon Amour. This led to Cannes hosting their first international film festival receiving the annual status.