Introduction: In Search of Audiences

That the audience is essential for film seems to have been understood for over a century. One of the earliest and best known accounts of attending a picture show, published by Maxim Gorky in 1896, spoke of visiting “the kingdom of shadows” and described the effect upon him of seeing those silent, gray ghosts. ¹ Something more provocative than street scenes and baby’s breakfast would be needed, he predicted, if this was going to find “its place in Russia’s markets thirsting for the piquant and the extravagant.” Using oral history and other sources, Luke McKernan’s account of the development of London’s cinemas before 1914 turns on the discovery of viewers starting to “seek out films for their own sake” around 1905-06. ² One hundred and fifteen years later, a report commissioned by the UK government on A Future for British Film was subtitled “It begins with the audience,” although some critics suggested that this was more paying lip service than taking seriously the interests of consumers. ³