Film Exhibition: The Italian Context

Film exhibition encompasses all the ways in which film texts are placed in front of audiences, and it has taken myriad, varied forms in Italy. For example, in the early days of cinema travelling projectionists exhibited films in urban centres and throughout the countryside, while in the 1920s and 1930s a network of Fascist youth groups actively circulated and screened films across Italy. As the twentieth century progressed, commercial exhibition was increasingly controlled by cinema chains, yet independent cinemas and film events remained vibrant. At the turn of the millennium, Italy’s single-screen cinemas gave way to urban multiplexes, and more recently both have been challenged by online streaming and covid-19. The history of exhibition practice in Italy frames movie-going in political, economic, legal, sociological and architectural terms, and it provides a fascinating insight into cinema’s enduring inextricability from wider issues of social space and cultural life.

Damien Pollard is Lecturer in Film at Northumbria University. Edward Bowen is Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Kansas.