Cinema in Context



How To Do

In which cinema owned by Abraham Tuschinski was the film De Jantjes (1934) screened most often?


In Cinema Context you can easily find in whose cinema a certain film was screened. But if you also wish to count the number of screenings per cinema, you will have to do more. In order to answer the question, we will combine data from two collections: Cinemas and Films. The first contains the names of cinemas and their owners, the second holds the titles. We will then move the found data to a database in order to regroup them and count them.

Method

Step 1

  • Open Cinema Context in a new window.
  • Click on Cinemas at the top of the page.
  • Enter ‘Tuschinski’ in the first search field and select Name of person from the pull-down menu.
  • Click on
  • Click on Add all to my data at the top of the page.

Step 2

  • Click on Films at the top of the page.
  • Enter ‘Jantjes’ in the first search field (leave out ‘De’) and select Film title from the pull-down menu.
  • Enter ‘1934’ in both search fields marked Film made between.
  • Click on search films
  • Click on the resulting link, which will take you to the right page for De Jantjes.
  • Click on the tab Programmes, then at the bottom of the page click on the line that reads 167 programmes have been found. Click to view all records
  • You will now see all programmes in which De Jantjes was screened. Click on add all to my data at the top of the page.
  • On the saved data page (if you cannot see the window, click on My Data at the top of the page), click on download contents and save the file in a folder that is easily accessible.

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Step 3

In order to answer this question, the file HowToDoInAccess.xslt must be present on your computer. If you have not installed this file yet, then follow use the method indicated in our FAQ Where do I find the transformation file and what is it for? , and then continue to Step 4. If you have installed this file already, then follow the procedure outlined below.

  • Launch MS Access.
  • Select File > New from the upper left corner.
  • On the right-hand side of the screen, create a Blank database
  • Store the database in a folder that is easily accessible.
  • Click on File > GetExternal Data > Import
  • Select XML from the pull-down menu Files of type and then choose the file you had saved before (the saved data set) with the found data.
  • Click on Options > Transform
  • Select HowToDoInAccess, click OK to confirm, and then OK once more to import the data.

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Step 4

  • On the left-hand side, click on Query under Objects, and then double-click on the right-hand side. A help window with the names of all tables will appear.
  • Select tblJoinProgrammaCinema and click Add. This table only contains the links to programmes, but not the details; this is all we will need for now.
  • Select tblCinema and click Add. This table contains the names of cinemas.
  • Click on Close and the help window will disappear. The two tables will be in the upper half of the query module.
  • Drag cinema_id from the table tblCinema to the eponymous field in table tblJoinProgrammaCinema. This will create a line between the two tables. This means that both tables have now been connected through the shared field tblJoinProgrammaCinema
  • Drag cinema_name from the table tblCinema to the first column in the lower half of the query module.
  • Drag programme_id from the table tblJoinProgrammaCinema to the second column in the lower half of the query module.
  • Click on (Totals) in the top of the toolbar.
  • Behind Totals, select Group by in the column cinema_name, and select Count in the column programme_id. The query will now count the number of programmes per cinema.


If you now click on View > Datasheet view, you will see the following table, which will indicate that De Jantjes was screened many times at Passage and Royal. You cannot see yet in which cities these cinemas are located.



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Step 5

We will now add the cities to the query, as we want to be able to distinguish the different locations from each other.

  • Open the query’s design view by clicking View > Design View in the toolbar.




  • Click on in the toolbar, or click on Query > Show Table in the menu.
  • Select tblJoinCinemaAddress and click Add
  • Select tblAddress and click Add
  • Click Close to close the help window.
  • Drag address_id in the table tblAddress to the eponymous field in the table tblJoinCinemaAddress. A line will appear between the two fields.
  • Drag cinema_id in the table tblJoinCinemaAddress to the eponymous field in the table tblCinema. A line will appear between the two fields.
  • Drag address_city in the table tblAddress to a position before the first column. The field will be added as a column.
  • Click on View > Datasheet view. The cities will now be listed in front of the cinema names.




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Discussion

  • What is the basis for these numbers? Cinema Context counts the number of weeks a film is screened, usually starting on a Friday. One might also consider a film’s run to be extended when aA film is can be screened shown at the same cinema for longer more than a week. Sometimes Also, a film may return to a cinema after an absence; in that case, one may consider it a reprise. The latter is not indicated by these figures.
  • There is also no indication that distinguishes which cinemas screened the film at an earlier date, and which screened it later. To find this out you will have to return to the overview on the website. That is where you can study the way a film was marketed over time.
  • The large Tuschinski theatre in Amsterdam only programmed De Jantjes for four weeks. FBut for a first-run theatre, this four weeks can would be considered an extremely long run at the time: happened rarely. Further exhibition was usually taken up quickly thereafter by a second-run theatre. What cinemas in Amsterdam and Rotterdam performed this function in this case?
  • You may have noticed that you initially found more cinemas than you ended up with in the Access listing. This is because Access does not display the cinemas in which De Jantjes was not screened at all. If you wish to include those cinemas in your table anyway, right-click the line between tblCinema and JoinProgrammeCinema, then click on Join Properties and select the second option. If you now click once more on View > Datasheet, you will find that the cinemas where De Jantjes was not screened have also been included in the table.