For the last ten years, digital technologies and small cameras have been aesthetically revolutionizing the cinema industry. From American independent films to Chinese documentaries (and vice-versa), as well as in the French art-house cinema, HD and mini-DV have made it possible to film more cheaply, faster and – even more importantly – differently. First used for news reporting or personal journals, they are now also being used to make superb fictional films.
This 21st-century cinema is fuelling a wide-ranging debate on the nature of the 7th Art which is as enthralling for film directors and cinematographers as it is for cinephiles and theorists. These are the issues and history covered in this work, which relies upon the analysis of films produced by such directors as Alain Cavalier, Lars Von Trier, Abbas Kiarostami, David Lynch, Claude Miller, Pedro Costa and Nuri Bilge Ceylan, all of whom are changing the language, as well as the very nature, of cinematic expression.

René Prédal, Emeritus Professor of Cinematographic Studies at Université de Caen, has written some forty books on the cinema. His latest published works are: Le Cinéma à Nice, histoire de la Victorine en 50 films, Esthétique de la mise en scène, Le Cinéma français des années 1990 and Le Cinéma français depuis 2000.