ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence of the familiar cinephilic film clubs in the mid-1920s, focusing in particular on the Viennese Kinogemeinde (Film Community, founded in 1926 by Friedrich Porges) and its attendant magazine Mein Film. Drawing on research into print journals, histories of play and studies of fandom and participation, the chapter argues that groups like the Kinogemeinde taught audiences—especially through ludic rituals modelled in film magazines and rehearsed in various society events such as costume balls—how to cultivate their passion for the movies, thereby helping to shape an emerging understanding of film as a sphere of performance art on par with other spheres of high culture (especially theatre).
