ABSTRACT

In this article, we demonstrate and argue that one way to acquire a better sense of cinemagoing in the silent film era is to investigate the relations between cinema locations, the socio-economic and demographic profile of their surroundings, and film programming. Driven by the centrality of space as one of the defining traits of new cinema history, we operationalise this inquiry through a data-driven toolkit of interconnected scalable approaches, in order to establish a multilayered contextualisation of Amsterdam’s early cinema landscape. We analyse Amsterdam’s historical cinema market both on the meso level of the city’s overall surroundings and on the micro level of two neighbouring film venues within a specific urban district. By switching between different levels of scale to analyse the cinemas’ programming profiles, we highlight the venues’ positioning within the socio-spatial structure of the city and their neighbourhood community in particular. In the future, the multifaceted analytical exploration enabled by our digital toolkit can be further enhanced by an increased availability of more fine-grained archival and contextual data.

摘要

在本文中，我们展示并论证了在无声电影时代获得更好的电影观感的一种方法是调查电影院位置、其周围环境的社会经济和人口特征以及电影节目之间的关系。在空间的中心性作为新电影历史的定义特征之一的驱动下，我们通过相互关联的可扩展方法的数据驱动工具包来实施这项调查，以建立阿姆斯特丹早期电影景观的多层次背景。我们从城市整体环境的中观层面和特定市区内两个相邻电影场馆的微观层面分析阿姆斯特丹的历史电影市场。通过在不同级别之间切换来分析电影院的节目配置文件，我们强调场馆在城市的社会空间结构中的定位，特别是它们的邻里社区。未来，我们的数字工具包支持的多方面分析探索可以通过增加更细粒度的档案和上下文数据的可用性来进一步增强。