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PP 089
'What Could I Be Doing in the Cinema?’ Comparative Cinema Cultures in European 1950s Medium-Sized Cities
L. Van de Vijver
1
, P. Ercole
2
, D. Treveri Gennari
3
1
Ghent University, Communication Studies, Ghent, Belgium
2
De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom
3
Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
During the 20
th
century, filmwas one of the most spread and popular cultural products, but it was never distributed, exhibited nor received the same every‑
where. Cinema historians Robert Allen, Douglas Gomery and Richard Maltby insist on the importance of researching the historical distribution, exploitation
and reception of film, instead of solely concentrating on the production context of film as a base for a film historiography; this research strand is defined
as New Cinema History. This critical shift has greatly enhanced and expanded the field of cinema studies as these research lines acknowledge the largely
ignored economic filmhistory and cinema audiences as it envision a social history of a cultural institute aimed to identify film as a cultural artifact consumed
by a variety of audiences. New Cinema History has enriched the field with countless international, national, regional and local case studies but the main
problem is that up to now there is no substantial comparative research. Developing comparative research designs will provide information about (inter)na‑
tional popularity of specific films and differences in film preferences in the heyday of cinemagoing of post-war Europe.The year 1952 is taken as a case study
for researching film programming and film popularity; the three cities – Leicester (UK), Ghent (Belgium), and Bari (Italy) – have been selected because
they present similar population density and film exhibition structures, as well as being representative of their national film culture. In our comparison proj‑
ect, the different cinema cultures are investigated by looking at the varied cinema exhibition structures, the programming strategies and film popularity.
Through the analysis of exhibition, programming data and box office figures this project will provide a new view on film preference and popularity cultures
in post-war Europe.This comparative research is based on digital assets concerning film programming in 1952; for the cities Ghent, Bari and Leicester all film
programs of 1952 have been collected, digitalized and identified in a comparable dataset. Our case study here will focus on the most popular months for film
releases in Italy, Belgium and the UK, that is the period from September to December.The comparative analyses makes concrete use of new digital tools such
as NodeXL, Palladio and CartoDB to study and visualize film preferences. The results of this comparative research will provide insights into the three film ex‑
hibition structures, the international supply of film, the differences and similarities in film programming strategies and the demand or film popularity with
attention given to origin, genre and star popularity. This joint research addresses the urgent necessity for comparative approaches, not only at a national
level, but also in international contexts. Additionally, it tackles the digital turn’s demands which need research data and metadata to be compatible and
accessible in order to carry out comparative work.
PP 090
Lost in Translation? A Multi-Methodological Research Project on Film Remakes Between Flanders and the Netherlands
E. Cuelenaere
1
, G. Willems
1
, S. Joye
1
1
Ghent University, Communication Sciences, Gent, Belgium
Since the turn of the millennium, film production in the Low Countries has seen the rise of a remarkable trend: popular Dutch films are being remade in
Flanders (the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), and vice versa. These remakes, being made very shortly after the ‘original’or source film in a dif‑
ferent geographical region, belong to the so-called ‘temporally immediate geographic’ category of remakes (Forrest & Koos, 2012: 8). This particular kind
of remake is not exceptional as such. Hollywood, for instance, has a long and rich history of remaking foreign feature films shortly after they have attracted
considerable domestic success (Durham, 1998; Mazdon, 2000). Such remake practices are of course in the first place guided by market-led considerations. In
this respect, within the film industries’discourse, the foreign language of the source films is generally pushed forward as the main commercial obstacle that
needs to be overcome (Zanger, 2006). Accordingly, the Flemish-Dutch remake phenomenon is particularly remarkable as both the source film and the re‑
make are shot in the same language: Dutch. Although there is a noteworthy difference in accent between ‘Flemish Dutch’ and ‘Dutch Dutch’ (De Caluwe,
2013), the use of the same language in temporally immediate geographic remakes is a highly unique phenomenon in the international film production. In
this paper, we want to present findings from an extended literature review and a large-scale research design that aims to critically investigate the various
dimensions of this remarkable practice of remaking films within a language region of barely 23 million speakers. The Flemish-Dutch remake phenomenon
will be studied by combining in-depth textual, production, distribution and (critical and audience) reception analyses. This way, the research project aims
to scrutinize the various cultural and economic dynamics and dimensions involved in the Flemish-Dutch remake phenomenon, thereby paying particular
attention to the intersection with issues of cultural identity and cultural proximity. Apart from its relevance for a better understanding of the Flemish-Dutch
interactions in contemporary film culture, this project provides a significant and original empirical contribution to key debates in adaptation studies, cultur‑
al media studies and the emerging research field of intercultural communication.
PP 091
The Cinematic Revival of ‘Low London’ in the Age of Smart Urbanism
M. Guha
1
1
Carleton University, Film Studies, ottawa, Canada
In a feat of 3D imaging, a piece in The Guardian unveils the London skyline of the future, comprised of a series of new skyscrapers deemed‘the cluster’. These
impending additions to the London skyline are heralded as a revival project, one that will complete the vertical vision of the city deferred during the 2008
recession. For Gwyn Richards, head of design of the City of London’s planning team, these new buildings will render the skyline legible in contrast its current
status as “an incoherent riot” (2015). Richards inadvertently raises the question of control in his comments, where the desire for “clarity on the skyline”
(2015) is suggestive of broader anxieties concerning the future of cities the world over, as enhanced modes of technologically based surveillance are met
with ever more brazen acts of mass terrorism that evade all measure of control. And yet, in a series of recent thriller/actions films set in the city of London,
it is not the vertical vision of the city that presides; instead, the city’s tunnels, Victorian archways and subterranean systems assume prominence, which