Cinema beyond the city : small-town and rural film culture in Europe

"Cinema is often perceived as a metropolitan medium - an entertainment product of the big city and for the big city. Yet film exhibitors have been bringing moving pictures to towns and villages since the early days of itinerant shows. This volume presents for the first time an exploration of the social, cultural and economic dynamics of film culture in the European countryside. Spanning more than a century of film exhibition from the early twentieth-century to the present day, Cinema Beyond the City examines the role that movie-going has played in small-town and rural communities across Europe. It documents an amazing diversity of sites and situations that are relevant for understanding historical and current patterns in film consumption. In chapters written by leading scholars and young academics, interdisciplinary research is used to address key questions about access, economic viability, audience behaviour, film programming and the cultural flows between cities and hinterlands. With its wide range of regional studies and innovative methodological approaches, the collection will be of interest not only to film historians, but also to scholars in the fields of urban history, rural studies and cultural geography."--Bloomsbury Publishing Cover Series Page Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Introduction: A New Approach to European Cinema History Local Dynamics Regional Paterns Alternative Exhibition Practices Contemporary Trends In Historical Perspective Notes PART I: LOCAL DYNAMICS 1 Small-Town Cinema in Scotland: The Particularity of Place Bo’ness Lerwick The Particularity Of Place Notes 2 Film Culture and the Catholic Milieu in the Münsterland: B illerbeck and Telgte in the 1950s Catholic Smal Towns In The Münsterland Region The Cinemas In Bilerbeck And Telgte Films As A Threat To Catholic Beliefs The Cinema As A Vehicle For Catholic Beliefs A Local Initiative Becomes Regional: Catholic Film Discussion E Venings In The Diocese Of Münster Catholic Film Culture In Münster Conclusion: The Catholic Influence On Small-town Film Culture Notes 3 Where the Exceptional and Everyday Meet: Post-War Cinema Culture in British Seaside Towns ‘oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside’: Cinema Culture Along The ‘golden Mile’ ‘roll Up! Roll Up!’: Programming For Great Yarmouth’s Summer Season And Winter Trade Tea And Sympathy: Midlebrow Distinctions Met Everyday Concerns At Gorleston’s ‘coli’ Conclusion Notes PART II: REGIONAL PATTERNS 4 Cinemagoing in Sweden in the 1940s: Civil Society Organisations and the Expansion of Rural Film Exhibition Maping Cinema In 1944–5: Urban And Rural Features Institutions Of Rural Cinema: The People’s Cinema And Ordenshusens Riksförening Cinema In The Rural County Of Jämtland Film Programmes At Jämtland Cinemas Cinema And The Civil Movements As Agents Of Modernity Notes 5 Film Consumers in the Country: The Culture and Business of Small-Town and Rural Cinemagoing in the Netherlands The Early Evolution Of The Dutch Film Market The Post-war Cinema Boom And The Modernisation Of The Countryside Dutch Film Culture And The Forces Of Pilarisation Beyond Pilarisation: Class Smal-town Cinemas In Eastern Groningen Weekend-cinemas And Traveling Exhibition Conclusion Notes 6 Cinema and Social Life in the Rural Gironde: Insights from an Oral History Project Ambulant Cinema In The Vilages Permanent Cinemas: Marketing Modernity In Smal Towns Pop-up Cinemas Film Programmes And Other Entertainments A Window On The World Audiences And Atendance Paterns Notes 7 Far from Swinging London: Memories of Non-Urban Cinemagoing in 1960s Britain Accessible And Inacessible Cinema Film Preferences And The Rural ‘real’ The Experience Of Smal-town Cinemagoing Conclusion Notes PART III: ALTERNATIVE EXHIBITION PRACTICES 8 Corporate Film Shows and the Initiation of Rural Audiences to Film and Consumer Culture in Switzerland Ambulant Cinema And Non-theatrical Film Culture Training And Entertaining Rural Consumers: Maggi Food Corporation Attracting Rural Audiences With Homeland Portrayals Film Socialisation Through Corporate Road Shows The Dominance And Decline Of Traveling Corporate Film Shows Alternative Cinemagoing Experiences, ‘other’ Cinema Histories Notes 9 ‘Coming up This Weekend’: Ambulant Film Exhibition in the Netherlands Classical Traveling Cinema Versus Modern Ambulant Cinema Diverging Business Interests Ambulant Cinema After World War Ii: Regulation Of The Trade Figures And Paterns Exhibition And Programming Practices: The Example Of Jac Miedema Conclusion Notes 10 Catholic Cinephilia in the Countryside: The Jeunesse Agricole Chrétienne and the Formation of Rural Audiences in 1950s France Catholic Film Exhibition As A Social Force The And The Cinema In The Interwar Years Cinema As A Vehicle For Catholic Emancipation The Country Girl And The Cinema What Eugène Has Seen For You From Criticism To Screenings: Film Education In The Village36 Notes 11 Alternative Cinema in the Youth Centre Movement in G ermany in the 1970s and 1980s The Youth Centre Movement Commercial And Non-commercial Cinema In The Countryside Film Screnings In Youth Centres Programming Practices And Film Production Audiences And Reception Continuity And Discontinuity Notes PART IV: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 12 Film Education, Technology and Popular Culture: Community Cinema in Rural Areas of the United Kingdom Theorising Comunity Cinema First-wave Comunity Cinemas Second-wave Comunity Cinema Conclusion Notes 13 Le Pestel in Die (Drôme): Quality Cinema in a Semi-Rural Setting A Short History Of Le Pestel A Neighbourhood Cinema Programming Strategies And Market Constraints Le Pestel And The Future Perspectives Notes 14 Cinema in the ‘Fog City’: Film Exhibition and Sociogeography in Flanders Belgian Film Exhibition Market: Historical Developments And Structural Changes Contemporary Flemish Cinema Culture Flanders As One Metropolitan Area Concerning Geography Cinema, Urbanity And Rurality Cinema, The ‘fog City’ And The Flemish ‘diamond’ Urban Areas, Functional Hierarchies And Cinema Conclusions Notes 15 ‘Town Centres First’: The Relocation of the Cinema from O ut-of-Town to the Town Centre in Britain The Multiplex And The Move Out Of The Town The Resurgence Of The Town: The Cinema Moves Back Case Study: Corby – A Post-industrial Town The Importance Of Local Cinema Case Study: Melton Mowbray – A Rural Market Town Looking Ahead Notes Index This book examines the role that movie-going has played in small-town and rural communities across Europe. It documents a diversity of sites and situations that are relevant for understanding historical and current patterns in film consumption. It explores questions about access, economic viability, audience behaviour, film programming and the cultural flows between cities and hinterlands Edited By Judith Thissen And Clemens Zimmermann. This Volume ... Has Its Origins In An International Workshop In Comparative Cinema History Held In Saarbrücken In September 2013. -- P. Vii. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.