Third Run Cinema

*(In sociology, the third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home (“first place”) and the workplace (“second place”). Third places are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. In other words, “your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances.”)

**During this time there were three “classes” of cinema in Italy: prima visione (first-run theaters, located in the sixteen major Italian cities); seconda visione (second-run houses); and terza visione (third-rate movie houses located in the more rural and industrial residential regions). Films would often open at the prima visione theaters, trying to maximize their box-office receipts, followed by short runs at the seconda visione houses, and only then would be released to the terza visione screens. However, due to the demand for product at the terza visione houses, many cheap local films would often play only there. The audience of the terza visione cinema was more like the television audience than like a prima visionecinema audience. The viewer went to the cinema nearest to her house after dinner, at around ten o’clock in the evening. The programme changed daily or every other day. She would not bother to find out what was showing, nor would she make any particular effort to arrive at the beginning of the film. She would talk to her friends during the showing whenever she felt like it, except during the bits of the film that grabbed her (or her friends’) attention (the film would stop anyway at an arbitrary point for an intermission). People would be coming and going and changing seats throughout the performance.