Sex in the city: the rise of soft-erotic film culture in Cinema Leopold, Ghent, 1945-1954

Since the 1990s, film studies saw a disciplinary shift from approaches favoring a textual and ideological analysis of films to a broader understanding of the socio-cultural history of cinema under the banner of new cinema history. This turn not only allowed for ‘niche’ research domains to flourish such as film economics or cinema memory research, or for new empirical and critical methodologies to be applied to film and cinema history. This change in researching and writing film/cinema history also shed light on previously marginalized, neglected or uncharted film cultures and histories, burgeoning scholarship in for instance (s)exploitation cinema. This contribution examines a peculiar part of post-war local film culture in the Belgian city of Ghent, more precisely the one around the city-center soft-erotic cinema Cinema Leopold (1945-54). The research is based on a programming and box-office database compiled from archival sources and contextualized by other data (internal and external correspondence, posters,…) coming from the business archive of Octave Bonnevalle, Cinema Leopold’s founding pater familias (material kept in the State Archives of Belgium; RAB/B70/1928-1977). The database now contains information on 625 film titles shown between 1945 and 1954, out of which 233 were unidentified (due to lack of information). Although the database is at times crippled by source inconsistencies, it is extremely rich in documenting the everyday practices of a cinema that gradually turned into a soft-erotic movie theater. The database allows for some remarkable findings concerning shifts in the origin of films, their production years, genres, censorship and popularity. The key finding is that Cinema Leopold started out after the Second World War with a child-friendly, mainstream Hollywood-oriented film program, as did most cinemas in Ghent, but its profile slowly tilted towards more mature audiences and provocative film genres. These included French ‘risqué’ feature films containing some forms of nudity like Perfectionist/Un Grand Patron (Ciampi, 1951) and documentaries on venereal diseases like the successful Austrian Creeping Poison/Schleichendes Gift (Wallbrück, 1946), but also auteur movies such as Bergman’s Port of Call/Hamnstad (1948) were shown. It is interesting how Leopold walked a fine line between innovative, bold European art-house cinema, soft-erotic ‘didactic’ movies and flat-out commercial soft-porn. By 1954, Leopold had gathered a loyal crowd, which kept the cinema alive until 1981 despite the several law suits and trials. This micro-history offers a remarkable example of the post-war flourishing of alternative, yet profit-driven cinema circuits, riddled with media controversies and censorship

Filmcultuur in Gent in de jaren 1950

De jaren 1950 waren in België gouden jaren voor filmvertoningen. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog en voor de televisie elke huiskamer binnen drong, waren er in België tot wel 1585 bioscopen. Dat was uitzonderlijk veel ten opzichte van onze buurlanden. De bioscoop was veruit het populairste tijdverdrijf. Een cinematicket was goedkoop, er was een groot aanbod aan films en bioscopen vond je overal. Eén op de drie Belgische gemeenten had minstens één bioscoop. Het aantal bezoekers bereikte een historisch hoogtepunt toen elke Belg meer dan een keer per maand naar de bioscoop ging. De grootste successen waren de Amerikaanse spektakelfilms zoals The Robe (Verenigde Staten, 1951) en Around the World in 80 Days (Verenigde Staten,1956), maar ook Europese producties zoals Le Petit Monde de Don Camillo (Frankrijk/Italië,1952) trokken enorm veel volk

Spektakelcultuur in de Lage Landen : naar een geïntegreerde en interdisciplinaire benadering

Inleiding tot themanummerfull text available online: http://www.tmgonline.nl/index.php/tmg/article/view/327/473status: publishe

Patient health information materials in waiting rooms of family physicians: do patients care?

Background: Patient health information materials (PHIMs), such as leaflets and posters are widely used by family physicians to reinforce or illustrate information, and to remind people of information received previously. This facilitates improved health-related knowledge and self-management by patients. Objective: This study assesses the use of PHIMs by patient. It also addresses their perception of the quality and the impact of PHIMs on the interaction with their physician, along with changes in health-related knowledge and self-management. Methods: Questionnaire survey among patients of family practices of one town in Belgium, assessing: (1) the extent to which patients read PHIMs in waiting rooms (leaflets and posters) and take them home, (2) the patients' perception of the impact of PHIMs on interaction with their physician, their change in health-related knowledge and self-management, and (3) the patients judgment of the quality of PHIMs. Results: We included 903 questionnaires taken from ten practices. Ninety-four percent of respondents stated they read PHIMs (leaflets), 45% took the leaflets home, and 78% indicated they understood the content of the leaflets. Nineteen percent of respondents reportedly discussed the content of the leaflets with their physician and 26% indicated that leaflets allowed them to ask fewer questions of their physician. Thirty-four percent indicated that leaflets had previously helped them to improve their health-related knowledge and self-management. Forty-two percent reportedly discussed the content of the leaflets with others. Patient characteristics are of significant influence on the perceived impact of PHIMS in physician interaction, health-related knowledge, and self-management. Conclusion: This study suggests that patients value health information materials in the waiting rooms of family physicians and that they perceive such materials as being helpful in improving patient-physician interaction, health-related knowledge, and self-management

Onderbouwen van een methodiek voor de systematische monitoring van koolstofvoorraden in landbouwbodems

Gedurende het laatste decennium kende het onderzoek naar organische koolstofvoorraden in de bodem (BOC-voorraden) een sterke opgang in Europa en ook in Vlaanderen. Deze hernieuwde interesse in organische stof kwam voornamelijk voort uit de ratificatie van het Kyoto-protocol dat een mogelijkheid voorzag om CO2 ‘sinks’ in te brengen in nationale broeikasgasemissiebalansen. Eerder onderzoek in België toonde een sterk verlies aan BOC aan gedurende de jaren ‘90. Bovendien bleek het potentieel om koolstof op te slaan in de bodem beperkt te zijn voor de intensieve Vlaamse landbouw. Dit maakt onze landbouwbodems kwetsbaar voor verder BOC-verlies en de daaraan verbonden bodemdegradatie. Bijgevolg dienen BOC-voorraden verder opgevolgd te worden om de gevolgen van het huidige en toekomstige landbouwbeleid op de bodemkwaliteit te evalueren. Hoewel België op wereldvlak over de grootste dichtheid aan BOC-data beschikt, is een verdere opvolging van BOC-voorraden momenteel niet georganiseerd in Vlaanderen. Dit onderzoeksproject behelst in hoofdzaak het opstellen van een methodiek voor de opvolging van BOC-voorraden in Vlaanderen. De studie werd onderverdeeld in vier werkpakketen: - WP 1: bespreking van de reeds bestaande BOC-monitoringsystemen in Europa - WP 2: bespreking van de methodologische aspecten bij de bepaling van BOC-voorraden - WP 3: inschatting van de ruimtelijke en temporele variabiliteit van BOC-voorraden in Vlaamse landbouwbodems - WP 4: opstellen van een bemonsteringsstrategie voor de Vlaamse landbouwbodem