1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996517771403316

Autore

Cowan Michael

Titolo

Film Societies in Germany and Austria 1910-1933 : Tracing the Social Life of Cinema / / Michael Cowan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam : , : Amsterdam University Press, , [2023]

©2023

ISBN

90-485-5572-8

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (274 p.)

Collana

Film Culture in Transition

Disciplina

791.4306043

Soggetti

Motion pictures - Social aspects - Austria - History - 20th century

Motion pictures - Social aspects - Germany - History - 20th century

Motion pictures - Societies, etc - History

HISTORY / Europe / Germany

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction : What Was a Film Society? Towards a New Archaeology of Screen Communities -- 1. The Knowledge Community : The Birth of the Film Society from the Spirit of Amateur Science -- 2. The Professional Community : Conceptualizing the Film Industry in the Deutsche Kinotechnische Gesellschaft -- 3. Communities of Love : Cinephilic Film Clubs, Movie Magazines and the Viennese Kinogemeinde -- 4. The Skeptical Community : Left-Wing Film Societies and the Making of the Suspicious Spectator -- Afterword: What’s in an ‘Idea’? -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This study traces the evolution of early film societies in Germany and Austria, from the emergence of mass movie theaters in the 1910s to the turbulent years of the late Weimar Republic. Examining a diverse array of groups, it approaches film societies as formations designed to assimilate and influence a new medium: a project emerging from the world of amateur science before taking new directions into industry, art and politics. Through an interdisciplinary approach—in dialogue with social history, print history and media archaeology—it also transforms our theoretical understanding of what a film society was and how it



operated. Far from representing a mere collection of pre-formed cinephiles, film societies were, according to the book’s central argument, productive social formations, which taught people how to nurture their passion for the movies, how to engage with cinema, and how to interact with each other. Ultimately, the study argues that examining film societies can help to reveal the diffuse agency by which generative ideas of cinema take shape.