ancient cities

cinemas shared characteristics with the neighborhood
movies houses; they were architecturally
uninspired and seemed to be designed only to
move large amounts of people through them. Yet,
in one way they resembled the movie palace; they
were situated in high-traffic areas designed to
accommodate middle-class consumers. As malls
grew, so too did their theaters. Multiple-screen
movie theaters offered patrons more cinematic
choices and generated more ticket sales for theater
owners. The blockbuster film born in the mid-
1970s (e.g., The Exorcist and Jaws) found its
home in the mall cinema.
The Multiplex
The multiplex (cineplex) is a cinema with many
screens, often as many as 20. The movie industry
began to suffer in the 1990s as a result of shifting
patterns of middle-class leisure, a multitude of
choices for in-home entertainment, and a lull in
dynamic movie making. So to improve ticket sales,
theater owners looked back to the tactics of picture
palace designers and built theaters designed to
impress consumers. Although most multiplex
designs are not nearly as extravagant as the picture
palace, they do incorporate massive murals, architectural
designs that suggest a sense of the past,
eye-catching lighting, IMAX, entertainment areas
for children, cafés with gourmet foods, and places
for repose. As urban centers were renovated, lessened
of crime, and commercialized in the 1990s,
multiplexes became a standard feature of city life
once again. However, the multiplex is at home in
suburbia as well.
The Boutique
The most recent manifestation of the movie house
is the cinema boutique. It is usually a one- or twoscreen
theater located in a dense urban center. The
boutique is part of a movement of new urban living
in which creative professionals (who can afford
it) live and play near where they work. Often in a
renovated building, the boutique first appeared in
the late 1990s and early 2000s. Its popularity is, in
part, a response to the mass appeal of the cineplex
and the blockbuster film. The boutique suggests a
sense of refinement, exclusion, and high culture by
way of its exhibition of independent and foreign
Cinematic Urbanism
139
films, small environs, stylish design, and gourmet
offerings.
Janna Jones
See also Cinematic Urbanism; City and Film; Shopping
Center
Further Readings
Jones, Janna. 2003. The Southern Movie Palace: Rise,
Fall, and Resurrection. Gainesville: University Press of
Florida.
Nasaw, David. 1993. Going Out: The Rise
and Fall of Public Amusements. New York:
Basic Books.
Rosenzweig, Roy. 1977. Eight Hours for What We Will.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Valentine, Maggie. 1994. The Show Starts on the
Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie
Theater, Starring S. Charles Lee. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
Wilinsky, Barbara. 2001. Sure Seaters: The Emergence of
Art House Cinema. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Ci n E M a t i C ur b a n i s M
Cinematic urbanism reflects the increasing interdependence
of the processes of image and spatial
production in the general frame of the symbolic
economy. It is an emerging field of study capturing—in
the relation among movement, image, and
the city—one essential aspect of modernity, as
well as epitomizing the present shift toward any
possible postmodernity. There are more ways to
understand this term in the current critical discourse,
which represent, however, different vantage
points from which to observe general processes
affecting the urban world. In the main view, cinematic
urbanism is a way to analyze the urban
environment through the cinematic sphere and to
assess how films contribute to the formation of
the urban identity. It also can be seen as a way to
explore the “imaginary” of emotional geographies,
as if to travel toward an urban world plastered
with images. From another perspective,
cinematic urbanism can be understood as a way to
look at the structural transformation of the urban