The films and writings of Jean Epstein still remain one of the best-kept secrets of film studies, especially outside of France. Hopefully this rich and insightful new anthology may sound the trumpet blast that starts the walls of isolation tumbling. While I and a few other film scholars have enjoyed a certain sense of privileged pleasure in knowing the work of this extraordinary cineaste, I can only find this persistent neglect puzzling. To my mind Jean Epstein is not only the most original and the most poetic silent filmmaker in France, surpassing impressive figures like Abel Gance, Jacques Feyder, Marcel L’Herbier and even Louis Feuillade; I also consider him one of the finest film theorists of the silent era, worthy to be placed alongside the Soviet theorists (Eisenstein, Vertov and Kuleshov) and the equal of the extraordinary German-language cinema theorist, Béla Balázs. I recently amused another senior scholar when I claimed I thought an English translation of Epstein's writings on cinema could revolutionize American film studies. My interlocutor, who greatly admires Epstein, shook his head and replied, “I wish I had as high an opinion of American film studies as you do!”

I try not to assume that my own passions are universal, and it may still be some time before the name of Epstein sounds as familiar as Eisenstein. Nonetheless, I cannot help but welcome this new anthology of essays and translations as a possibly transformative contribution to media studies. And I say media studies rather than simply film studies or film history advisedly. Although Epstein's place in film history remains central and complex, I cannot regard him simply as a historical figure. Epstein entered cinema at its moment of greatest excitement and discovery – a period in which its possibilities seemed boundless and its implications yet to be theorized. We now are witnessing a moment in which the nature of moving images and sound, of media in general, is undergoing a similarly radical transformation – and Epstein's writings seem to me more relevant than ever.