While there are plenty of books and other media that will enrich your understanding of film, the following titles are useful as starting points for research.

Cook, David A. (1981) A History of Narrative Film. New York: W. W. Norton.

Mast, Gerald (1986) A Short History of the Movies. 4th edition. New York: Macmillan.

Ray, Robert B. (1993) A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1980. Princeton: Princeton UP.

Sklar, Robert (1993) Film: An International History of the Medium. New York: Harry N. Abrams/Prentice Hall.