ABSTRACT
I want to examine some consequences of setting up popular European cinema as a category for scholarship. Popular cinema might be thought a contradiction in terms. 'Cinema' carries more of the elite status of art with it than 'films' or 'movifes'; it also emphasizes the institutional and industrial aspects of film production and exhibition while significantly excluding television. Cinemas have owners and managements; they belong — usually — to corporations, never to filmgoers. One attends the cinema as a customer or at most a patron. The institutions of cinema determine what is available for one's patronage: the choice between Batman and the latest Indiana Jones could appear quite marginal. 'Let the buyer beware' governs the purchase of a cinema ticket more powerfully than it rules in most consumer transactions; satisfaction is not guaranteed and no compensation is offered if the items purchased prove unsuitable or cause distress.
