Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home

by Barbara Klinger

Since the mid-eighties, more audiences have been watching Hollywood movies at home than at movie theaters, yet little is known about just how viewers experience film outside of the multiplex. This is the first full-length study of how contemporary entertainment technologies and media―from cable television and VHS to DVD and the Internet―shape our encounters with the movies and affect the aesthetic, cultural, and ideological definitions of cinema. Barbara Klinger explores topics such as home theater, film collecting, classic Hollywood movie reruns, repeat viewings, and Internet film parodies, providing a multifaceted view of the presentation and reception of films in U.S. households. Balancing industry history with theoretical and cultural analysis, she finds that today cinema's powerful social presence cannot be fully grasped without considering its prolific recycling in post-theatrical venues―especially the home.

Genres: Film

324 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2006

Reviews

[Jessrawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at certain aspects of home viewership. Strangely, she focuses quite narrowly on DVD ownership & viewing habits, thereby ignoring the more prevalent (at the time of writing) VHS collecting (given the newness of DVDs at the time). Equally strange is the lack of mention of rental services (be they VHS or DVD) for the most part. This seems an odd exclusion, given the subject matter. The book certainly has a male slant to its analysis, but at least Klinger admits to this. Despite this, some intricate analysis of the purpose of collecting & rewatching films. Even though it was written well before the advent of online streaming (mostly, anyway—there is a large section about short films online), the analysis is still applicable to many of our habits today.

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very superficial, and now almost totally outdated, but the sections on repeat viewing of films, and the observations on the clever way in which the cinema industry capitalised upon the collector ethic, and the toys for boys aspects of home cinema, using the same tropes as seduced people (okay, men) into "hi fi" do have some relevance. Poorly written.