What Cinema Is! offers an engaging answer to Andre Bazin'sfamous question, exploringhis'idea of cinema' with a sweeping look back at the near century of Cinema's phenomenal ascendancy. Written by one of the foremost film scholars of our time Establishes cinema’s distinction from the current enthusiasm over audio-visual entertainment, without relegating cinema to a single, older mode Examinescinema's institutions and its social force through the qualities of key films Traces the history of an idea that has made cinema supremely alive to (and in) our times