Not only divas
Special features of films in cinema advertising in Trieste before the First World War
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12896101 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Loiperdinger (Universität Trier, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2-3 |
| Pages | 201-228 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Early Popular Visual Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1746-0654 • E-ISSN: 1746-0662 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17460654.2021.2058191 |
| OpenAlex | W4281706904 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 1 |
The ‘invention’ of the long feature film was the key tool used by production and distribution companies to try to solve the overproduction crisis of short films in Europe at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. Neither cinema owners nor their patrons had clamoured for the shift from entertaining short film programmes to challenging long feature films that absorbed the viewer’s attention and required qualifications in creating meaning while watching moving pictures. Thus, it was the local cinema manager who had to succeed in attracting paying audiences to multiple-reel feature films that ran for one hour or longer – in some cases more than two hours. This essay presents a local study of the cinema programme in Trieste before the First World War that examines the selling points put forward in newspaper ads published in Il Piccolo, the most read daily newspaper at the time, with the aim of promoting long feature films. The evaluation of a sample of over 350 cinema advertisements shows that stars and divas like Asta Nielsen and Lyda Borelli were but one among other, some stronger, selling propositions to attract local audiences for long feature films. These other selling points were Danish dramas produced by Nordisk, Italian peplum films and programmes of short film comedies by Max Linder. This diversity in selling points for the long feature film testifies to the fact that though the star system was emerging, it had not yet been fully established as a means of marketing multiple-reel feature films by the end of the 1913–14 season, at least not in Trieste
Advertising · Art · Business · Feature (linguistics · Feature film · Linguistics · Media studies · Movie theater · Newspaper · Political science · Reel · Sociology · Visual arts · World War II · Art History and Market Analysis · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law
| Highly cited | No |
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