Book excerpt: Film has taught us to see the world afresh, but it could not picture its own birth. In "The Dream That Kicks," Michael Chanan puts forward a theory of invention to show how cinematography was a product of the growing forces of nineteenth century capitalist production and traces the development of British cinema from its mystical origins in music halls to its emergence as a cultural commodity. "The Dream That Kicks" combines astute textual analysis of individual films with detailed archival work of the industry. It situates cinema within its wider context to produce a thought-provoking exploration of its cultural and ideological implications. This paperback edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to take into account orhte recent work on early cinema.