The Place of the Audience: Cultural Geographies of Film Consumption

It has been a recurring complaint both within and against film studies that it has largely ignored the activities of audiences. This book aims to address this absence (as compared to television studies) and to explain its cause. The authors argue that there is a social context in which the consumption of film can be understood or studied historically; demonstrating that a concentration on the place of film consumption within the changing cultural politics of the city can offer a compelling and productive focus of analysis. This book examines not only the different meanings of different sites of film exhibition and distribution (city-centre cinemas, local cinemas, art-house cinemas, multiplexes, terrestrial television transmission, video rental and retail, and satellite/cable), but also the meanings of the activities of film consumption associated with these sites. Through use of archival materials and ethnographic studies of the audience, the book examines the meanings of film consumption from the earliest film showings up to the 21st century.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Introduction Chapter One: From Spectatorship to Film Consumption Chapter Two: Contexts of Film Consumption Section Two: The Construction the Cinema: Fairgrounds, Theatres and Spatial Regulation Introduction: Class, Gender and Public Space in Early Film Consumption Chapter Three: Novelties, Fairgrounds and the Exoticisation of Place Chapter Four: Constructing the Cinematograhic Theatre: Purpose Built Cinemas, Community Relations and the Politics of Place Section Three: A Progressive City and its Cinemas: Technology, Modernity and the Spectacle of Abundance Introduction: Slum Clearance, Cinema Building and Differentiated Experiences Chapter Five: Translating the Talkies: Diffusion, Reception and Live Performance Chapter Six: The City Centre, the Suburbs and the Cinema Building Boom Chapter Seven: Consuming Cinemas: Technology, Modernity and the Spectacle of Abundance Part Four: Cinema Closures, Post-war Affluence and the Changing Meanings of Cinema and Television Introduction Chapter Eight: Contemporary Understandings of Cinema Closure Chapter Nine: Locality, Affluence and Urban Decay Chapter Ten: From Cinema Going to Television Viewing: The Developing Meanings of a New Medium Chapter Eleven: Negotiating Nostalgia: Modernity, Memory and the Meanings of Place Part Five: Beyond Cinema: Film Consumption in the Information Age Introduction Chapter Twelve: Regulating Reception: Legislation, Time-Shifting and the Sociality of Video Chapter Thirteen: 'The Splendid American Venture on the Ring Road': Multiplexes, Americanisation and Mass Consumption Chapter Fourteen: Cultural Capitals: Culture, Diversity and Legitimacy Chapter Fifteen: Media Revolutions: Futurology, Film Content and the New Media Conclusion

About the Author :
Dr Mark Jancovich is Reader and Director of the Institute of Film Studies at the University of Nottingham. Lucy Faire is a Research Associate in the Department of Geography at Loughborough University. Sarah Stubbings is a PhD student in the Institute of Film Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Review :
"Offers the best review of the state of the study of cinema going I have ever read and...a mapping of how to think about a central problem of what it meant to live in the 20th century... It examines not only the different meanings of all the different sites of film exhibition and distribution but also the authors bring a whole new context to how meanings are generated in the activity of film consumption. This is a marvelous book, wholly original, and will make a major contribution to the literature and understanding of film and television during the 20th century. Masterful!"