108 | Mass Media and Historical Change
indeed among the audiences (Müller 2003: 194–201). What is more, film
producers were bourgeois also, and consequently so were the perspectives from
which they filmed. Nonetheless, the early cinema changed public structures:
on the one hand it allowed women to participate in a new public space, and on
the other hand it facilitated encounters between different social and political
milieus – at least to a larger extent than reading communities, exhibitions or
the theatre had done.
Middle-class anxiety about the new media is evidenced by the moral
protest movements which occurred in the late nineteenth century in many
Western countries. They were directed against music halls, the theatre, ‘penny
dreadfuls’ and film. For the most part conservative and initiated chiefly by
teachers and pastors, these groups proffered hardly verifiable individual cases
to support their claims that the new media demoralised children and women,
were an inducement to crime, and produced restive and listless teenage charac-
ters. The labour movement also directed itself against ‘trashy’ films and cheap
novels. They disapproved of the reactionary, militaristic and unrealistic quality
of films, considering that they diverted attention away from actual social prob-
lems (Maase 2001).
In the years around 1906, film experienced a crisis. Sales stagnated or caved
in because short films were no longer regarded as the new attraction, and the
middle classes tended to keep their distance. A phase of fundamental restruc-
turing followed, often referred to as the ‘bourgeoisification’ (Verbürgerlichung)
of film. In fact, the film industry adapted to the bourgeois conventions of
theatre to a great extent in order to retain affluent customers. In the cities,
numerous cinemas and picture palaces were now established, some of which
were magnificently furnished and had tiers similar to those in opera houses.
This encouraged social demarcations in terms of seating arrangements, dif-
fering admission fees and dress codes. Moreover, assigned seating disciplined
the audience and the dark space thus became more respectable. Narrative film
now took over the screen as dramatic story material arranged into acts gradu-
ally replaced the ‘cinema of attraction’. Film editing, montages, and the use of
intertitles furthered the development of longer narratives. In order to improve
the reputation of cinema, film producers additionally tried to attract famous
stage actors as a means of improving the repute of the cinema. Promotion
of stars was also in the theatrical tradition. All this effectively led to a rapid
expansion of cinema and a quick rise in viewing figures.
With fictional, feature-length films came different genres. The latter can
be understood as a means of refined targeting and a way of managing expec-
tations and audience reception. Different countries preferred different genres,
and this in turn shaped both their self-perception and how they were per-
ceived by others. The Americans, for instance, produced westerns and slapstick
movies, whereas Italy became known for its historical dramas and epics after