The End of Cinema – A Medium in Crisis in the Digital Age

On the topic of the distinction between type and token, see André Gaudreault, “Cet art plus photographique qu’autographique que serait le cinéma . . .,” in Joseph Delaplace, Pierre-Henry Frangne and Gilles Mouëllic, eds., L’oeuvre de l’art: La pensée esthétique de Gérard Genette (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2012), pp. 211-19.

To say that the manufacturer ceded all its rights to the exhibitioner also means that the former ceded to the latter the right to show the film-token he had bought until it was threadbare. Because manufacturers offered only one means of acquiring animated pictures, through the outright purchase of prints, this transaction required the exhibitioner to make an investment which could only be amortized through prolonged use of the film. This was not particularly disadvantageous financially, as he was able to find new audiences by going from town to town or village to village. The exhibitioner’s concern was thus not with obtaining a steady supply of new film-tokens, but rather in finding new audiences. This, on a commercial level, was not a great stimulant for the animated picture “manufacturing” economy, because it did not encourage the introduction of new titles on the market.

They thus revolved to put an end to the sale of their films and adopted a rental system, which took hold between 1905 and 1910 (varying by country). This new method sounded the death knell of itinerant exhibition in turn and presaged the advent of permanent movie theatres devoted to the specialized presentation of “picture shows,” in the sense the term was understood at the time. Gradually, by establishing places specifically devoted to this kind of entertainment – such as nickelodeons in the United States – where people could take part in this new form of “going out” that was taking root in society – that of going to the movies – exhibitors developed a loyal clientele. Movie-goers were also courted by showing pictures that were more complete, more complex and more polished than what they had been accustomed to before then.

The ancestors of video rental stores known as the Kodascope Libraries are described in the following terms on a page of the site Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/castlekay/2291728521) which also reproduces an advertising poster from the 1930s announcing “A Cinema in Your Own Home”: “Kodak begins operating THE KODASCOPE LIBRARIES in the spring of 1925, around various parts of the country in regional offices and local camera stores. An early precursor to the video tape rental store, Kodak leased negatives of fine grain prints from a variety of Hollywood producers and made stunning amber and sepia tinted prints for rental purposes.” The text is taken from the site Robbies Reels (www.robbiesreels.com/1920.htm).

This article can be consulted at the following address: http://next.liberation.fr/cinema/0101102275-le-cinema-produit-d-appel-des-nouvelles-technologies.