David Selznick mentioned this bbok inhis afterward for "The Invention of Hugo cabret." Since I have an interest in film studies, I checked it out. I serached out and use most of the information in this book with students- I've even had them build phenakistiscopes, thaumatropes, flip books, and the like to help them understand how film evolved and how it works. Clee has assembled all but the hands-on portion in this film book on the invention of "the movies." I recommend its u More...

This is a fascinating read for lovers of film. It provides an in depth look at the history of how we finally got to the point where movies could be filmed. There's a reference to Gorges Melies (a famous magician in Paris that discovered spliced film by accdient and used the technique to make it look like actors were vanishing on film) in HUGO and I was familiar with Melies from reading BEFORE HOLLYWOOD.