Episode 1 (1895–1918): The birth of the cinema and the introduction of the thesis that ideas and passion have always driven movies more than money and marketing. Episode 2 (1918–1928): The triumph of American film and the first of its rebels. Hollywood during the Roaring Twenties: glitz, fantasy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton. Robert Flaherty, Eric Von Stroheim, and Carl Theodor Dreyer battle for the soul of the new medium with movies that are serious and mature. Episode 3 (1918–1932): The great rebel filmmakers around the world. The silent era proves a golden age of world cinema: German expressionism, Soviet montage, French impressionism and surrealism, the glories of China and Japan. (180 mins.)

Episode 4 (1930s): The great American movie genres and the brilliance of European film. The arrival of sound and the birth of new types of movies: screwball comedies, gangster pictures, horror films, and musicals. Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and moody Frenchmen. Episode 5 (1939–1952): The devastation of war and a new movie language. Daring post-war cinema, from Italy to Hollywood (Orson Welles to Stanley Donen) to the McCarthy era. Episode 6 (1953–1957): The swollen story—world cinema bursting at the seams. 1950s sex and melodrama: James Dean, Marlon Brando, and glossy weepies. Passionate movies from Mexico, Great Britain, Egypt (Youssef Chahine), India, China, and Japan (Akira Kurosawa). (180 mins.)

Episode 7 (1957–1964): The shock of the new modern filmmaking in Western Europe. The explosive European cinema of the late 1950s and ’60s: Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, and the French New Wave. Episode 8 (1965–1969): New Waves sweep around the world. EASY RIDER and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY usher in a new era in American cinema. Internationally, Roman Polanski, Andrei Tarkvosky, and Nagisa Oshima make waves. Episode 9 (1967–1979): New American cinema. American cinema matures and a new Black American cinema is born. (180 mins.)

Episode 10 (1969–1979): Radical directors in the ’70s make state-of-the-nation movies. Movies in Europe, South America, Africa, and Japan try to change the world. Another New Wave hits Australia. Episode 11 (the 1970s and onwards): Innovation in popular culture around the world. The arrival of the multiplex: STAR WARS, JAWS, et al. Bollywood blooms and Bruce Lee kickstarts a new kind of kinetic cinema. Episode 12 (the 1980s): Moviemaking and protest around the world. Bold filmmakers speak truth to power in protest movies in America, the Soviet Union, and pre-Tiananmen China. Krzysztof Kieslowski emerges in Poland. (180 mins.)

Episode 13 (1990–1998): The last days of celluloid before the coming of digital. Film enters another golden age in Iran (Abbas Kiarostami), Japan (Shinji Tsukamoto), France (Claire Denis), and Mexico, among other places. Episode 14 (the 1990s): the first days of digital–reality losing its realness in America and Australia. Brilliant, flashy, playful English-language movies (by Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Baz Luhrmann, et al.) Change the movies again. Digital technology promises even more profound change. Episode 15 (2000 onwards): film moves full circle and the future of the movies. Movies get serious after 9/11. Romanian cinema, David Lynch, Alexander Sokurov, and Christopher Nolan continue to break new ground as the art of cinema looks toward the future. (180 mins.)