The Endless End of Cinema: A History of Crisis and Survival in Hollywood

Film is dead! Three little words that have been heard around the world many times over the life of the cinema. Yet, some 120 years on, the old dog’s ability to come up with new tricks and live another day remains as surprising and effective as ever. This book is an exploration of film’s ability to escape its own ’The End’ title card. It charts the history of cinema’s development through a series of crises that could, should, ought to have ’ended’ it. From its origins to Covid - via a series of unlikely friendships with sound, television and the internet - the book provides industry professionals, scholars and lovers of cinema with an informing and intriguing journey into the afterlife of cinema and back to the land of the living. It is also a rare collaboration between an Oscar-winning filmmaker and a film scholar, a chronicle of their attempt to bridge two worlds that have often looked at each other with as much curiosity as doubt, but that are bound by the deep love of cinema that they both share.

Gianluca Sergi is the Director of the Institute for Screen Research Industries and Associate Professor of Film and Television at the University of Nottingham, UK. A leading industry expert and scholar in the film and screen industries with over 25 years of experience, Sergi has published widely on film production and the cinema industry. He has also consulted for world leading studios and industry organisations in the US, UK and China. Gary Rydstrom is a sound designer at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound, USA. He has won 7 Academy Awards in sound, for Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Titanic, and Saving Private Ryan. At Pixar, he directed the animated short films Lifted and Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation. For Lucasfilm, he directed the animated feature Strange Magic. Rydstrom is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USA, and continues to be involved in film education.