Abstract
Geographical categories permeate the humanities disciplines; in cinema studies, they are used extensively to describe the spatial dimensions of the cinema-going experience and of cinema overall. The meanings we attribute to geographical categories and how we use them influence the way we interpret and analyse phenomena. The main problem with using geographical categories is that they change considerably across time and space—due to changes in definitions, meanings, and parameters—making their usage problematic. Hence, understanding how geographical categories are constructed and how to best use them is an important issue this chapter seeks to address. By deconstructing the geographical categories of urban and rural, this chapter deals with the complexity of using geographical categories and offers some tools to better interpret the main contributions presented in this book.