Movie halls and cinema-theatres. A failed ‘second birth’ of film exhibition in 1910s non-urban Lombardy

This article uses the Lombardy region as a case study to examine the emergence of cinemas in non-urban Italian areas between 1905 and 1920. The main hypothesis is that the so-called ‘second birth of cinema’ (the establishment of dedicated commercial movie halls with daily screenings, which followed the initial birth of film exhibition in non-dedicated venues) was unsuccessful in rural and small-town Italy, leading to the development of cinema-theatres instead. Unlike dedicated movie halls, cinema-theatres (often under the control of associations, including mutual-aid societies) were politicised, mainly active on weekends and open to different forms of entertainment. The persistence of cinema-theatres lasted for decades and indicates a slower commercialisation and autonomisation of leisure time. The article also addresses the methodological importance of accounting for geographical differences in the spread of cinemas of different types. The historical materials consulted are varied and come from state archives, the local press, and municipal archives, the latter of which have been underused thus far.