1. The `Enlighteneď city part 1
Theoretical frame / Research design / global results
2. The `Enlighteneď city part 2
Case studies and oral historiesCase studies and oral histories
3. Film audiences reconsidered
Experiences from contemporary audience research:
LOTR / art house / young people in Flanders
Philippe Meers
Visual Culture Research Group
University of Antwerp
Mazaryk University, Brno, 15-16 December 2008
The `Enlighteneď city
Screen culture between
ideology, economics
and experience.
A study on the social role of film exhibition and film consumption
in Flanders (1918-2004) in interaction with
modernity and urbanisation
The Glow in their Eyes
Global perspectives on film cultures, film exhibition and cinema-going
International Conference, Brussels, 15-16 December 2007
CARL DE KEYZER  Men waiting in front of a film theatre.
Hyderabad, India, 1985
History of Moviegoing, Exhibition, and Reception
HOMER Project http://icarg.wordpress.com/
institutional context of the project
* Fund for Scientific Research FlandersB
l iBelgium
* 4 year funding / two researchers (2005-2008)
* promoters:
* Philippe Meers, Dept of Communication Studies, Visual
Culture Research Group & Dept Of Communication (UA)
* Marnix Beyen, Dept of History, Centre for Cultural and Urbany , p y,
History (UA)
* Daniël Biltereyst, Working Group Film and Television
Studies, Dept of Communication Studies (Ghent U)
theoretical framework
Film audiences history
Film history has been written as if films had no audiences or were seen by
everyone and in the same way, or as if however they were viewed and by
hoe er the histor of `films' as distinct from and pri ileged o er the histor ofwhoever, the history of `films' was distinct from and privileged over the history of
their being taken up by billions of people who have watched them since 1894.
(Robert C. Allen, 1990)
theoretical framework
New cinema history
For cinema history to matter more, it must engage with the social history of
which it is part, not through the practices of textual interpretation, but by
attempting to write cinema history from below; that is, to write histories that areattempting to write cinema history from below; that is, to write histories that are
concerned not with the kings and queens of Hollywood but with their audiences
and with the roles that these performances of celebrity played in the ordinary
imaginations of those audiences.
(Richard Maltby, 2006)
theoretical framework
The spatial turn in film historical research
(Robert C. Allen, 2007)
The social geography of cinema goingThe social geography of cinema going
(Jancovich et al. 2005, Nottingham project)
Triangulation through multilevel analysis: (re-)constructing cinema
culture in Flanders
context: screen culture
* screen culture in Flandersscreen culture in Flanders
 commercialised, subject to international tendencies
 pillarisation and the struggle for modernity
context: screen culture
* film as a case in pointfilm as a case in point
 tension between commerce and ideology
 prominent part of cultural and social life in
metropolitan, provincial and rural contexts
 top down economic and ideological forces
 actual experiences and embeddedness in
everyday life
context: screen culture
* new perspectives:e pe spect es
 pillarisation, film & ideology as lived experiences
vs ideological strategies of the elites
 interaction with urbanised culture
 metropolitan ­ provincial ­ rural areas
central aim
* A diachronical analysis of the social role ofˇ A diachronical analysis of the social role of
screen culture in Flanders (1918-2004) as a
result of the tensions between commercial and
ideological forces (in particular `pillarisation')
and the actual consumption, through a study of
cinemas and film consumption in interactionp
with modernity, public space and urbanisation.
structure of the project
* part 1: map of cinemas
* an extended inventory of existing and historical cinemas iň an extended inventory of existing and historical cinemas in
Flanders with attention for the geographical distribution and
the relations between the commercial and the pillarised
circuit
* part 2: institutional developments,
geographical location and programming
trends
* analysis of the interaction between ideology, economics and
screen culture through diachronical research on cinemas,
film exhibition and programming in metropolitan (Antwerp &
Ghent), provincial (Mechelen) and rural context
structure of the project
* part 3. audience and film experiences in
b d l t turban and rural contexts
* Analysis of the interaction between ideology, economics and
film consumption through historical audience research on the
role of cinemas and film consumption in the experience of
leisure culture in different cities and areas
Research in practice
* Part 1. Inventory of movie exhibition places in Flanders
* construction of a database
Fl d d B ľ Flanders and Brussels
* 1924 - 2005
* Part 2. Case-studies
* institutional evolutions, geographical sites, and programming
* case studies:
* Ghent and Antwerp
* MechelenMechelen
* rural areas
* Part 2. Audience research
* experience of movie-going
* oral history Roma, Berchem, 2006
www.deroma.be
Part 1. Inventory
Mailings and follow-up mailings
* Archives and local governments
L l hi t i tiˇ Local history societies
* Local heritage associations
Sources collected
* Industry yearbooks
* Local publications
* Material collected in archives: building plans,
company files, licence applications,...
Ph t hˇ Photographs
Problems with historical data gathering
* Inconsistency of different, non-continuous sources
Rubens, Antwerpen, 60's
Collection Paul Corluy
Part 1. Inventory
Information collected in database
* Movie theatres: location / name / address / opening and closing date / number of
screens and seats / architecture / ticket prices / ideological and economical
identification
* People: names and functions of cinema-employees
* Companies: name and organisation of companies behind movie theatres +
management
* Films and exhibition: frequency of exhibition + titles of films mentioned in sources
* Database : +37.000 entries
Results
* Large scale analyses of major tendencies and changes: movie theatres and screens
* Tension between metropolitan, urban and rural areas
* `Pillarisation'
Part 2. Case-studies
* Aim
di h i l h i fil hibitiˇ diachronical research on cinemas, film exhibition
and programming in metropolitan, provincial
and rural context
* Case-studies
- Metropolitan level: Antwerp & Ghent
- Urban level: Mechelen
- Rural level
* Data gathering
* Local and private archives
- Contacts with local heritage associations
- Contacts with key-players in local
exhibition industry
C it l G t 60'
Part 3. Audience research
* Aim
* historical audience research on the role of
cinemas and film consumption in the experience of
leisure culture in different cities and areas
* Method: oral history
* Metropolitan level: Antwerp & Ghent
- Selection of respondents
- interviews are conducted by students
* Urban level: Mechelen
* Local heritage society of Mechelen conducted interviewsLocal heritage society of Mechelen conducted interviews
* Rural level
* Reseach topics
- Role of cinema in everyday life
- Importance of context of moviegoing
- Influence of `pillarisation'
Palais du Cinéma, Gent, 1907
Collection UGent
Work with students
* Local cinema history
- 2005: 49 students (University of Antwerp & Ghent University) did research in their
home townhome town.
The data they gathered were added to the database
- 2006: 16 students (Ghent University) did research on their local cinema history
* Film experience
- 2005: 17 students (University of Antwerp) interviewed 173 people in 21 villages on
their film experience in historical perspective (1930-2005)
- 2006: 11 students (Ghent University) and 16 students (University of Antwerp) did
historical reception reseach on film experience in Antwerp (155) and Ghent (61)
Interview data
CITIES VILLAGES
173 interviews216 interviews
in 21 villages
80 
93 
216 interviews
Antwerp: 155
Ghent: 61
71  84 
34  27 
Plans for the future
* map of cinemas in Flanders
* GIS softwarě GIS-software
* Searchable database (levels of entry)
* Open page for respondents
* Integration in www database HOMER
* Case study on Antwerp
* Commission for the MAS
* City of Antwerp Museum
* Concept for museum
* installation/website
Results from part 1
a diachronical overview of cinemas in Flanders
and Brusselsand Brussels
Number of cinemas and screens in Flanders
(various sources) / cinema attendance
1000
1200
400
600
800
1000
0
200
1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
number cinemas in Flanders (yearbooks) number screens in Flanders (yearbooks) statistics Flanders (yearbooks)
NIS Flanders VKBB Inlichtingsbulletijns cinema attendance in Flanders (in milj.) (*10)
Urban vs. rural cinema exhibition
Asse, advertisement for Kinema Elisabeth,
(Heemkundige Kring Ascania)
Antwerp, Vendôme, '50s
(Private archive Paul Corluy)
Geographical spread of the number of
cinemas in Flanders according to population
density (1924-2000)
400
450
200
250
300
350
400
0
50
100
150
1924 1930 1947 1961 1969 1991 2000
Large cities (> 1000 inh./km) provincial cities (600-1000 inh./km)
small towns (200-600 inh./km) rural towns/villages (0-200 inh./km)
Number of cinemas per province 1924-2000
Antwerpen Brussels
Hfdstedelijk
Gewest
Oost-
Vlaanderen
West-
Vlaanderen
Vlaams-
Brabant
Limburg
1924 125 108 112 69 53 31
1947 176 117 159 114 84 57
1961 228 131 206 153 110 88
1975 83 49 56 60 39 34
2000 18 13 11 16 7 6
Province of West-Vlaanderen
population density/ towns with at least
one cinema (1924)
Province of West-Vlaanderen
population density/ towns with at least
one cinema (1961)
Commercial and `ideologicaĺ cinema exhibition
Ninove, Volkshuis De Redding, (Town archive
Ninove)
Dendermonde, cinema Paleis Koningshof, 1936
(Town archive Dendermonde)
Overview of pillars in 57 Flemish towns
35
15
20
25
30
0
5
10
1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
catholic socialist liberal Flemish-Nationalist
Evolution of the number of cinema spaces and the
humber of pillarised exhibition spaces
(case studies)
300
150
200
250
0
50
100
1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
no. Pillarized exhibition spaces no. Cinema spaces (total)
Questions and discussion
Movie Theater in Antwerp
Collection Paul Corluy