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Introduction to the Film Store
- Ordering From This Site Ordering the film of your choice is simple and straightforward. Placing your cursor on an individual title will reveal a Preview panel giving the current price, average customer rating and access to the Amazon Shopping Basket. For more product information click on the title to go to the full Amazon page, from where you can also make a purchase. Use your back button to return to History Unlimited your Shopping Basket will keep your selection until you return to the Amazon site (so long as you have cookies enabled). Use the Amazon Search Boxes for titles that are not included in our selection. Note that many of the DVDs are available for rental.
Important Information · Amazon prices are typically between 10% and 30% off list. Single orders of over £15.00 in value are usually eligible for free delivery in the UK. · Most orders will be dispatched within 2-3 days, but please refer to the Amazon page for delivery details for individual films. · If a film is temporarily out of stock, or has yet to be released on DVD, it is possible to pre-order. You will be informed by e-mail when the item becomes available. · Wherever possible we have sourced DVD releases. In some cases, however, only a VHS version is currently available. Be sure to check the format details on our pages and on the Amazon site. · Please note that the publishers are not party to or responsible for any purchases made from Amazon as a result of visiting the History Unlimited site. Transactions are between the purchaser and Amazon, and Amazon will be responsible for all aspects of fulfilment of your order. Any queries on orders should be sent directly to Amazon via their web site. The publishers of History Unlimited will not have access to your personal or payment details. · We have made every effort to provide accurate information, but purchasers are strongly advised to check the details provided on the Amazon site before ordering.
- Film Store Organisation With the exception of the years 1903-1929, each page on this site covers a 5 year period. Each page lists approximately 25-30 films which, in our view, are representative of significant (but not exclusive) trends within the period. This site can only give a flavour of the thousands of films produced over the past hundred years. Some key productions that we had marked for inclusion are not yet released on DVD or VHS or are otherwise unavailable from Amazon; some are only available in Region 1 format. Please note that we intend to extend our coverage of all sections of this site once our initial listings in other categories are complete.
Organisation · Each page contains two or more sub-categories, each with a brief introduction. Up until and including the 1955-1959 page the sub-categories are thematic; thereafter the listings are categorised by source region: British, American, etc.. · Under each sub-category titles are organised by year of release in ascending order. · Titles are listed alphabetically for each release year.
Our intention on this site is to combine the benefits of a printed film guide with an online store. Most film sites (including Amazon) are search engine driven and devote a single page to each entry. The conventional online format assumes that the site visitor has a reasonably clear idea of what he is looking for. History Unlimited provides the opportunity to browse and buy: to review, on single pages, a selection of films from any given period and, to some degree, to track the developmental trends in cinema. We hope that this approach makes for convenience, interesting reading, informed choice and easy purchasing.
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About the Film Store Film has been the art form of the past hundred years. At its best, cinema combines every conceivable artistic discipline into a seamless whole: drama, music, the performing arts and photography; architecture, sculpture, interior design and the graphic arts; all derived from the creative talents of writers, composers, directors, designers, actors and technicians. Cinema has also drawn heavily on artistic tradition, whether in literature, the classic artworks of past centuries or emerging contemporary movements. This vision of cinema as an imaginative force is reflected in our collection. While acknowledging technical development and innovation we have placed the emphasis on content and creativity (for this reason we have avoided recent productions where impact has depended primarily on special effects, computer imaging or fly-by-wire acrobatics). Our selections tend toward mainstream cinema, and especially towards English language output. We have not steered too closely to the wilder shores of art house cinema; and, regretfully, our coverage of film-making from outside the United Kingdom and the United States is fairly limited at this time. The focus on popular cinema brings into frequent relief the age-old conflict between art and the interests that finance it; even so these pages contain much that was seminal and much that was controversial. And within our current limitations our choice gives an insight, however partial, into the way that film production has mirrored social and political events and, in some notable cases, helped to influence them. The power of cinema to inspire, propagandise or indoctrinate was recognised by governments of wildly different political persuasions from the very beginnings of film. As a result, film makers have been subjected to manipulation, coercion and outright attack from incumbent administrations; and also from political opportunists, from religious groups and from didactic conservatives. In this respect the history of cinema is part of the history of the modern world and the films on these pages, taken together, tell a part of that history. Historical narrative has itself been part of the stock-in-trade of the film industry since the earliest days. Given the constraints and the artistic imperatives of film production, historical matter has been selectively compressed, modified or blatantly distorted for dramatic effect. But historical distortion has also served to reflect or promote national interests, populist prejudices and personal agendas in this respect cinema has often functioned as a modern myth-making machine. Each generation recreates history in its own image, and cinematic treatment of historical material often gives an intimation of the immediate popular mood and political climate that is absent from the more distanced accounts of professional historians. Interest in film and film history has never been greater, judging by the re-runs of film classics and critical reviews on television, by DVD giveaways in the national press and by the popularity of information features in special edition DVDs. This site is intended for the general film lover. Through its pages certain trends and themes are apparent and the emergence of directors and filmic styles can, to some extent, be traced. Many of our featured titles are surprisingly low-priced but, nonetheless, provide attractive additions to any collection. Unlike newspaper freebies these are all top quality boxed presentations; many have special extra features, even where these are not mentioned in our reviews; and the vast majority have featured in the Academy Awards of their day, either as winners or nominees. Please note that History Unlimited is a UK based site and this is reflected in reproduction formats. DVDs are Region 2 encoded, compatible with equipment in the UK, Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East (including Egypt).
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Text & Photographs © 2006 History Unlimited & Hill House Publications
Film Store Intro
1903-29
1930-34
1935-39
1940-44
1945-49
1950-54
1955-59
1960-64
1965-69
1970-74 |
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History Unlimited co.uk
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