cinemAmsterdam
Historical cinema programming & reception
Since 2001, we are researching at our department the historical cinema programming and reception of three first-run Amsterdam film theaters from the 1920s and 1930s, Tuschinski, Rembrandt and Royal. This research is done within a practical course on word & image archives, taught together with colleagues from Applied Informatics. Students research, per programming year, programming and reception data from Dutch newspapers. They also search for additional production and distribution data. We have all compiled this in a specially built database. This is a simple Access database, not online yet. It easily permits to make synchronical and diachronical queries on production, exhibition, and distribution data. Think of genre and nationality of the films, of production companies, of directors and stars. Thus profiles of the three film theaters can be established, profiles that change over time. Quotations from dailies are inserted to give an impression of the various judgments on the films, in we which we trace not only aesthetical, but also moral, religious and political judgments, in an era of pillarization, inflation, Depression, fear of fascism, nationalism and communism and fear of the foreign wars of the 1930s, culminating in the German invasion in May 1940.
A first, Dutch-written report of the research was given on the site of the association Geschiedenis, Beeld en Geluid [History, sound & image] in 2002. See: www.geschiedenisbeeldgeluid.nl/
nieuwsarchief/nieuws_2002_4_7.html In the newspaper of the Vrije Universiteit, Ad Valvas, a short notice appeared on February, 19th, 2004. On basis of the students research and with additional research by myself, I was able to publish an article on one of the three selected film theaters, Rembrandt: 'Duits gevaar voor onze bioscopen. Het Rembrandttheater 1919-1933’, Ons Amsterdam, 2, 2004, pp. 52-56.
Since 2001, we are researching at our department the historical cinema programming and reception of three first-run Amsterdam film theaters from the 1920s and 1930s, Tuschinski, Rembrandt and Royal. This research is done within a practical course on word & image archives, taught together with colleagues from Applied Informatics. Students research, per programming year, programming and reception data from Dutch newspapers. They also search for additional production and distribution data. We have all compiled this in a specially built database. This is a simple Access database, not online yet. It easily permits to make synchronical and diachronical queries on production, exhibition, and distribution data. Think of genre and nationality of the films, of production companies, of directors and stars. Thus profiles of the three film theaters can be established, profiles that change over time. Quotations from dailies are inserted to give an impression of the various judgments on the films, in we which we trace not only aesthetical, but also moral, religious and political judgments, in an era of pillarization, inflation, Depression, fear of fascism, nationalism and communism and fear of the foreign wars of the 1930s, culminating in the German invasion in May 1940.
A first, Dutch-written report of the research was given on the site of the association Geschiedenis, Beeld en Geluid [History, sound & image] in 2002. See: www.geschiedenisbeeldgeluid.nl/
nieuwsarchief/nieuws_2002_4_7.html In the newspaper of the Vrije Universiteit, Ad Valvas, a short notice appeared on February, 19th, 2004. On basis of the students research and with additional research by myself, I was able to publish an article on one of the three selected film theaters, Rembrandt: 'Duits gevaar voor onze bioscopen. Het Rembrandttheater 1919-1933’, Ons Amsterdam, 2, 2004, pp. 52-56.
As dr. Karel Dibbets (Universiteit van Amsterdam) has launched his nationwide Dutch cinema programming site Cinema Context in April 2006, new programming research by ourselves would be redundant. From now on, we will therefore focus on cinema reception. We will work on ways to open up reception not only in qualitative but also in quantitative ways. In 2006, my students have made therefore inventories of Dutch dailies and weeklies, in order to establish the availability and usability of papers with regular film reviews for the interbellum era. We will maintain, however, our database structure for the moment, as it permits us to do the profile research, to do the queries and ask research questions which Cinema Context cannot perform (yet), such as research on production and reception data. In the future we hope to be complementary and possibly connect each other's databases, as well as link to other national (such as that of the Dutch Filmmuseum) and international databases. The cinemAmsterdam database already contains links to the Internet Movie Database and to the German cinema database www.filmportal.de
The programming and reception of the film theaters Rembrandt (1919), Tuschinski (1921) and Cinema Royal (1922) have been inventoried up till 1940 now and may be consulted on the premises of the Vrije Universiteit. Anyone interested can contact me at il.blom@let.vu.nl
Our research as always been set up in close collaboration with Karel Dibbets and the Netherlands Filmmuseum. Our goal has always been free exchange of data.
Cinema Context
Netherlands Filmmuseum
Dutch films
The programming and reception of the film theaters Rembrandt (1919), Tuschinski (1921) and Cinema Royal (1922) have been inventoried up till 1940 now and may be consulted on the premises of the Vrije Universiteit. Anyone interested can contact me at il.blom@let.vu.nl
Our research as always been set up in close collaboration with Karel Dibbets and the Netherlands Filmmuseum. Our goal has always been free exchange of data.
Cinema Context
Netherlands Filmmuseum
Dutch films