The proposed project, mentioned in Vladimir Petric's articles "From Written Film History to Visual Film History," is a book intended as a teaching vehicle for college and university film courses and involving shot-by-shot analysis and evaluation of films as primary study material. Cinematic values are emphasized both because cinematic visual language was almost entirely developed and mastered during the silent film era and because considerable material already exists on contextual or thematic analysis of major films. The films chosen for screening exemplify the various styles of significant filmmakers and the schools to which they belong. Each film is studied analytically, focusing on the formal structure of the work. Material in the 16 chapters follows the technical and stylistic development of the medium, with the general approach being historical. Chapter topics range from the birth of cinema to the avant-garde of the 1920's. (JM)