Repertory Time

Chapter 4 examines the phenomenon of double bills or double features, which were once ubiquitous among repertory houses. While it is almost entirely neglected by film studies, this paradigm offers, by virtue of its dyadic nature, a constantly refreshed platform for intertextual re-readings. This research suggests that double bills function as highly concentrated microcosms for the larger schemas of entire weekly schedules or monthly calendars. The chapter lays out the terms and implications of what can be thought of as repertory time, an elongated viewing modality in which spectators were immersed in queer worlds that rejected routine heteronormativity and endorsed carnivalesque, heterotopic transgression. As exercises in intertextual cross-pollination and juxtaposition, double features indicate how programming made critiques and pleasures affectively available and immediate for repertory filmgoers.