La storia dell’esercizio cinematografico di provincia in tre momenti storici. Il caso di Gardone Val Trompia

The article uses a microhistorical approach to Gardone Val Trompia’s movie theatres. Using archives, local newspapers and other sources, it retraces historical change in management’s forms of out-of-the-city exhibitors. The aim is to highlight their radical difference: never cinema-only venues and always entangled with the local administration and civil society. Three particular moments are discussed: the origins of rural cinema among politicized mutualistic societies; the dominance of non-profit venues during the fascist era, especially those managed by Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro; the renewal and ‘professionalization’ in the mid-1950s. It is also discussed how the government license impacted locally on the cinemas’ existence.