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University of Groningen The Aesthetics and Viewing Regimes of Cinema and Television, and Their Dialectics van den Oever, A.M.A. Published in: Audiences. Defining and Researching Screen Entertainment Reception IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2012 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): van den Oever, A. M. A. (2012). The Aesthetics and Viewing Regimes of Cinema and Television, and Their Dialectics. In I. Christie (Ed.), Audiences. Defining and Researching Screen Entertainment Reception (pp. 113-127; 257-261). (The Key Debates - Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies; No. Vol. III). Amsterdam University Press. 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Download date: 10-10-2021 AUDIENCES engages with one of the most THE KEY DEBATES 3 important shifts in recent fi lm studies: the turn THE KEY DEBATES away from text-based analysis towards the Mutations and Appropriations in viewer. Historically, this marks a return to the early interest of sociologists and psychologists, European Film Studies which was overtaken by concern with the “effects” of fi lm, linked to calls for censorship The Key Debates is a fi lm rather than to understanding the mental series from Amsterdam and behavioral world of the spectator. Early University Press. The series’ cinema history has revealed the diversity of ambition is to uncover the fi lm-viewing habits, while traditional mass processes of appropriation and AUDIENCES market box offi ce analysis has given way to diffusion of key concepts that more sophisticated economic and sociological have shaped Film Studies. The analysis of attendance data. And as the fi lm series editors are: Ian Christie, experience fragments across multiple formats, Dominique Chateau, and the perceptual and cognitive experience of Annie van den Oever. the individual viewer (who is also an auditor) becomes increasingly accessible. This book European Film Studies Mutations and Appropriations in spans the spectrum of contemporary audience Contributions by: THE KEY DEBATES studies, revealing work being done on local, Kay Armatage, non-theatrical and live digital transmission Martin Barker, audiences, and on the relative attraction of Raymond Bellour, large-scale, domestic and mobile platforms. Ranita Chatterjee, Ian Christie, Ian Christie (ed.) A book on the spectator, today, is a challenge – if not Torben Grodal, AUDIENCES a provocation. Cinema is relocating on new devices Nicholas Hiley, and in new environments: in its migration, it asks us Laurent Jullier, to change our habits and our attitudes. Are we still Frank Kessler, spectators – or are we users, surfers, nostalgic buffs, Jean-Marc Leveratto, technology experts, hackers and face-book friends? Roger Odin, This book provides a deep insight in such a contro- Annie van den Oever, versial situation, both at the theoretical and empirical Clara Pafort-Overduin, Ian Christie (ed.) 3 level – retracing a history and facing a destiny. John Sedgwick, Francesco Casetti – Yale University Tim J. Smith, Judith Thissen, Gregory A. Waller. ISBN 978-90-8964-362-9 Ian Christie is professor of fi lm and media history at Birkbeck www.aup.nl College, University of London. 9 789089 643629 A U P A U P Audiences The Key Debates Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies Series Editors Ian Christie, Dominique Chateau, Annie van den Oever Audiences Defining and Researching Screen Entertainment Reception Edited by Ian Christie Amsterdam University Press The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). This book is published in print and online through the online OAPEN library (www.oapen.org) OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is a collaborative initia- tive to develop and implement a sustainable Open Access publication model for academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The OAPEN Library aims to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research by aggre- gating peer reviewed Open Access publications from across Europe. Cover design: Neon, design and communications | Sabine Mannel Lay-out: japes, Amsterdam isbn 978 90 8964 362 9 e-isbn 978 90 4851 505 9 (pdf) e-isbn 978 90 4851 846 3 (ePub) nur 670 Creative Commons License CC BY NC ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0) c I. Christie / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012 Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise). Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustra- tions reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Contents Editorial 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: In Search of Audiences 11 Ian Christie PART I Reassessing Historic Audiences “At the Picture Palace”: The British Cinema Audience, 1895-1920 25 Nicholas Hiley The Gentleman in the Stalls: Georges Méliès and Spectatorship in Early Cinema 35 Frank Kessler Beyond the Nickelodeon: Cinemagoing, Everyday Life and Identity Politics 45 Judith Thissen Cinema in the Colonial City: Early Film Audiences in Calcutta 66 Ranita Chatterjee Locating Early Non-Theatrical Audiences 81 Gregory A. Waller Understanding Audience Behavior Through Statistical Evidence: London and Amsterdam in the Mid-1930s 96 John Sedgwick and Clara Pafort-Overduin PART II New Frontiers in Audience Research The Aesthetics and Viewing Regimes of Cinema and Television, and Their Dialectics 113 Annie van den Oever 5 Tapping into Our Tribal Heritage: The Lord of the Rings and Brain Evolution 128 Torben Grodal Cinephilia in the Digital Age 143 Laurent Jullier and Jean-Marc Leveratto Spectator, Film and the Mobile Phone 155 Roger Odin Exploring Inner Worlds: Where Cognitive Psychology May Take Us 170 A dialogue between Tim J. Smith and Ian Christie PART III Once and Future Audiences Crossing Out the Audience 187 Martin Barker The Cinema Spectator: A Special Memory 206 Raymond Bellour Operatic Cinematics: A New View from the Stalls 218 Kay Armatage What Do We Really Know About Film Audiences? 225 Ian Christie Notes 235 General Bibliography 279 Notes on Contributors 299 Index of Names 305 Index of Film Titles 311 Index of Subjects 315 6 contents Editorial Thinking and theorizing about film is almost as old as the medium itself. Within a few years of the earliest film shows in the 1890s, manifestos and reflections began to appear which sought to analyze the seemingly vast potential of film. Writers in France, Russia, and Britain were among the first to enter this field, and their texts have become cornerstones of the literature of cinema. Few nations, however, failed to produce their own statements and dialogues about the nature of cinema, often interacting with proponents of Modernism in the traditional arts and crafts. Film thus found itself embedded in the discourses of modernity, espe- cially in Europe and Soviet Russia. “Film theory,” as it became known in the 1970s, has always had a historical dimension, acknowledging its debts to the pioneers of analyzing film texts and the film experience, even while pressing these into service in the present. But as scholarship in the history of film theory expands, there is a growing need to revi- sit many long-standing assumptions and to clarify lines of transmission and in- terpretation. The Key Debates is a series of books from Amsterdam University Press which focuses on the central issues that continue to animate thinking about film and audiovisual media as the “century of celluloid” gives way to a field of inter- related digital media. Initiated by Annie van den Oever (the Netherlands), the direction of the series has been elaborated by an international group of film scholars, including Domin- ique Chateau (France), Ian Christie (UK), Laurent Creton (France), Laura Mulvey (UK), Roger Odin (France), Eric de Kuyper (Belgium), and Emile Poppe (Bel- gium). The intention is to draw on the widest possible range of expertise to pro- vide authoritative accounts of how debates around film originated, and to trace how concepts that are commonly used today have been modified in the process of appropriation. The series should thus