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Weibliches Publikum, Programmgestaltung und Rezeptionshaltung im frühen deutschen Kino (1906-1918)
(2009)
Die vorliegende Dissertation analysiert die wechselseitigen Einflussnahmen von weiblichem Publikum und der Kino-Programmgestaltung in der Zeit von der Gründung erster ortsfester Kinos um 1906 bis zum Ende des 1. Weltkrieges. Dabei bilden der Kinobesuch von Frauen, die Konstruktion von Geschlechteridentität im und durch das Kinoprogramm und der wechselseitige Einfluss von weiblichem Publikum und Programmgestaltung, sowie die Veränderung von Filmgenres und -längen und die Veränderung des Rezeptionsverhaltens das Paradigma der Analyse. Der Fokus auf das weibliche Publikum ist bewusst gewählt, da Frauen auch zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts einen großen Anteil am Kino-Publikum ausmachten. Dies ist besonders bemerkenswert unter der Prämisse, dass Frauen traditionell aufgrund der bürgerlichen Trennung zwischen privater und öffentlicher Sphäre nicht Teil eines öffentlichen Publikums waren. Daher liegt es nahe zu vermuten, dass das Auftreten dieses völlig neuen Publikumssegments nicht spurlos am Kino vorbeigegangen ist. Es hat Einfluss genommen auf die Filme, aber auch auf das Kino als Ort und die Programmierung seiner Filme. Das Aufkommen eines weiblichen Publikums bewirkte, so die Leitthese der vorliegenden Dissertation, eine Veränderung der Kinoprogrammstruktur weg vom diversen Nummerprogramm des "cinema of attractions", das kürzere Slapstick-Filme, Trickfilme sowie kurze Filme mit Spielhandlungen mit dokumentarischem Material verband hin zu einem Programm, dessen Hauptattraktion ein, oder maximal zwei lange Filme mit fiktionalem Inhalt waren. Auf der Grundlage zweier Lokalstudien zum Kinoprogramm zweier mittelgroßer deutscher Städte analysiert die vorliegende Arbeit den Prozess, in dem das von klassen- und geschlechtsspezifischer sowie kultureller Diversität geprägte frühe Kino, dem Heide Schlüpmann eine heimliche Komplizenschaft mit der weiblichen Emanzipationsbewegung des Wilhelminischen Deutschlands zuspricht, abgelöst wird durch ein stabilisiertes, institutionalisiertes, nationalisiertes deutsches Kino. Eingeführt und ergänzt wird die tiefergehende Analyse der Kinoprogramme der untersuchten Städte durch eine auf historischen Quellen beruhende Untersuchung der Struktur und Wahrnehmung des weiblichen Publikums und der Programm- und Aufführungsmodalitäten in der Zeit zwischen 1906 und 1913 sowie während des Ersten Weltkriegs.
Cinema programming, the composition of films to make a specific "show," remains a neglected way to research the relation between audiences and film form. As a mode of exhibition " advertised, promoted, and circulating in the public sphere even before an audience is gathered " the program can be seen as an active social relation between cinema managers and their audiences. Changes in the composition of film programs, in my case the years before the First World War in Mannheim, Germany, are thus not taken as part of a teleological evolution of film form, but instead reveal emerging practices of cinema-going, a changing relation among showmen, distributors, audiences, and the city they are all part of. The category of "the audience" becomes a compliment to narrative, economic and technical influences. Selecting the city of Mannheim further allows me to draw upon the pioneering German sociological study of cinema audiences, conducted there by Emilie Altenloh in 1911 and 1912. Thus, I am able to compare her survey data to the film programs that were actually advertised and offered to the public at the time, and also include knowledge of the social history of the city, to approximate a description of the historical audiences she studied. Here I follow the findings of Miriam Hansen and Heide Schlüpmann, who both stress the importance of the female audience in Imperial Germany. I account for a reciprocal relation between female spectators and the film industry- local programming practice to describe the transitional period from the short film programme of the "cinema of attractions" to the dominance of the long feature film, i.e. from 1906-1918. Looking closely at the advertised programmes of Mannheim I show that almost all of the first multiple-reel feature films deal with women- topics, i.e. with the fate and fortune of women, concluding that the presence of women in the audience helped established the long feature as central to the institutionalized cinema program. The film program and the specific feature films represented female identity on the screen, responding to the perceived wishes and needs of the women who gathered as audiences. Taking this "program analysis" approach, because it provides a synopsis of the social relation between audience, industry, and film form, is a valuable tool for comparing the social place of film comparatively, across many films, and potentially across regions, countries, and cultures.
In my paper I will talk about the mutual influences between the female spectators and the programming practices of Imperial Germany- cinema. I will focus on the period of the transition from the short film programme of the "cinema of attractions" to the dominance of the long feature film, i.e. from 1906-1918. I will ask questions how the presence of women in the cinema (the place where they first entered the public sphere) influenced the practice of programming. So I will deal with the relatively new topic of the programme (and its structural changes) as a mode of exhibition and I will try to connect this to the role the female audience played in shaping this format: how does the female audience affect the changes of the programme patterns, the modification of genres and their meaning within the structure of the programme and does it finally bring about a change in the mode of reception. And on the other hand how does the cinematographical programme represent and influence the female identity, and women- wishes and needs. One must ask for the reasons why the early cinema, that was characterised by diversity concerning class, gender and cultural issues and that built a kind of alternative public sphere, was displaced by an institutionalised, state monitored and nationalised German cinema. Taking into account that this change of film forms was not a teleological evolution, "gender" might be a more useful and insightful category than "class" is to explain the changes of the programme and the essence of early cinema. First I am going to present the main ideas of my project, then I"ll talk about the composition of the audience and the relation between audience and program, after that I"ll make some remarks on the reform movement and what the reformers thought about women in the cinema and about the programming practices, and as a last part, we"ll have a look at what actually happened in the cinema and at the program of the year 1911/1912 and how this program catered to the interests of the female audience. I"ll conclude with a short outlook on the changes that occurred during WW I.
