This book materialized at a quite precise moment, albeit the periodization and determinations of this moment remain fairly difficult to specify. It lies in the midst of a period when ‘cinema’ is being transformed, with the gradual abandonment of its original system of analogue image and sound recording on a photo-chemical base in favour of their digital coding and storage. This evolution has not only affected cinema: it has already had an impact on music and sound recording, photography, book publishing, etc. In the case of cinema, its complexity has delayed somewhat a process that soon appeared inevitable. This shift has shaken up every field in which cinema operates: with the creation of new professions and the transformation of existing trades; the appearance of new industries and the bankruptcy of film laboratories and motion picture camera manufacturers; companies no longer producing film stock; major transformations in the ways in which ‘copies’ of ‘films’ are distributed; profound alterations to the system’s overall economy involving entirely new circulations of money; radical changes to the way moving images are consumed by viewers (on computers, mobile telephones, etc.); new problems for f ilm archives; the list goes on and on.