The Community of Cinema: How Cinema and Spectacle Transformed the American Downtown James Forsher 9780275973551

The movie theater has in many ways served as a barometer of the evolution of urban America over the past century. The Community of Cinema explores how the growth and decline of the inner city has been intertwined with the history of the movie theater, how the cinema helped redefine the use of downtowns to include entertainment and socialization, a sense of social place in our society, and the use of spectacle as a part of our daily experience in shopping, eating, and business. This is the first book to examine directly the importance of the movie theater in the creation and growth of the modern American downtown, and its fostering of its own sense of place and community. The Community of Cinema also attempts to bridge the various fields included in the subject of cinema's impact on culture and form, among them film studies, architecture, urban planning, and sociology. In so doing, author James M. Forsher explores in each chapter the ways in which the community of cinema came about, the changes it sparked in the downtown and neighborhood shopping districts, and the sense of community it added to our society as a whole.

Examines the ways in which the movie theater fostered its own sense of place and community, one with its own architectural styles, its own neighborhood districts, and its own cultural rules of behavior.

About the Author
JAMES FORSHER is the Director of the Media Production Program at California State University, Hayward.


Book Information
ISBN 9780275973551
Author James Forsher
Format Hardback
Page Count 168
Imprint Praeger Publishers Inc
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Weight(grams) 397g