This chapter aims at introducing the reader into the field of film reception studies, more particular into the field which deals with audience’s contemporary and historical filmic and cinematic experiences. After providing an historical overview of this expanding field, the chapter goes into the various strands of cinema and film reception research. The contribution argues that in recent years, this field of research grew into an ever more mature, inter- and multidisciplinary domain, where perspectives are now utilized, which were often neglected within film studies so far, like ethnographic research, memory studies, social geography, urban studies, history, or the digital humanities. Much of this recent work is driven by the idea that a perspective on audience’s ‘bottom up’ experiences of films and cinema, leads to a more profound understanding and eventually to a revision of theories, concepts, and the history of film and cinema. This chapter is to be seen as part of the scholarly endeavour, often called ‘new cinema history’, which aims at rewriting film’s and cinema’s past precisely by integrating audiences’ experiences.
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