A history of images in motion that explores the "special effect" of cinema.

Finally, he considers what he calls "post cinema," examining the post-war development of the "spatialisation" of time through slow motion, freeze-frame, and steadi-cam techniques. Students of film will find Cubitt's analyses of noncanonical films like Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as enlightening as his fresh takes on such classics as Renoir's Rules of the Game.