Language and Cultural Nearness: Film Programming Strategies and Audience Preferences in Big Cities and Small Towns in the Netherlands 1934–1936

This chapter addresses questions of language and film popularity by showing different patterns in film programming between big cities and small towns in the Netherlands between 1934 and 1936. The analysis shows that although Dutch popular films penetrated to even the smallest towns, there was a diminished interest for those in the mining towns Geleen and Heerlen. The relatively high presence of German miners in Heerlen very likely explains the apparent preference for films that were not very popular elsewhere in the Netherlands. The results show clearly that in a choice between films spoken in different languages, audiences tended to choose mother tongue films. While the social aspect of cinemagoing is important, language mattered and cinemagoing cannot simply be reduced to a habitual social practice.