30.09.2016

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die leibeigene Schauspielerin" 1964

This photo is taken in Kino International's earliest months. The advertised movie is the Soviet movie Die leibeigene Schauspielerin / The Serf Actress / Krepostnaya aktrisa (USSR 1963, Roman Tikhomirov). It is a musical in Sovscope 70, that means the movie is produced in 70 mm. The special 70 mm-technology can still be used today at Kino International.
Kino International opened on 15 November 1963, the movie realesed in East Berlin in May 1964.
The postcard is published by Gebr. Garloff KG in Magdeburg.

Just found another postcard with the same advertised movie at night, published by Dick-Foto-Verlag in Erlbach/Vogtland.

15.09.2016

Bukhara in Bukhara / Uzbekistan

Cinema Bukhara opened in 1974 with 850 seats in one hall and is still working. The postcard is published in 1975.
If you love cinemas and movies and you are in Uzbekistan, don't forget visiting the Museum of cinema of Uzbekistan in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. First movie was shown in 1897 in Tashkent. Today Uzbekfilm is the largest and oldest film studio in Uzbekistan, it was established in 1925. It has produced about 400 feature films and 100 animated films until now.

14.09.2016

Letní kino in Karlovy Vary/Czech Republic

The open-air cinema in Karlovy Vary/Carlsbad/Karlsbad opened in 1946 with 3500 seats. It is still used as a cinema: Letní kino. You can see there movies and listen to concerts. It is also a scene of the International Film Festival. But you can't see there the newest movies, because there isn't the digital technic. There are shown older movies with good 35 mm projectors. Kino Nostalgia.

11.09.2016

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Firmafest" 1976

You can see at this postcard the idea of a cinema's front like a big shop-window. The name of the cinema, parted by the film poster, nearly a Golden ratio.
The advertised movie is Firmafest / Firmafesten (The Office Party) by Jan Halldorf (Sweden, 1972), realesed in East Germany on 4 June 1976. The movie isn't well known, but it is one of the first movies with Stellan Skarsgård.
Today office parties take place regularly at Kino International. Big companies love the unique atmosphere there.
The postcard was published by Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach/Vogtland. 
The poster was designed by Heinz Ebel.

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Bushido" 1965

I noticed, there are many different postcards from only this cinema.
It is very interesting because you can date the photo very exactly with the big (hand made) film poster at the building front. It is a special document of its era, together with the people, cars and other things. Have you seen the blue umbrella, nearly in the middle of the picture - maybe a little ice shop.
The photo was taken in 1965, the postcard was published in 1967 (you can identify this by a special number on postcard's back). Cinema advertised the movie Bushido, Samurai Saga by Tadashi Imai (Japan, 1963). The movie released in East Germany on 11 June 1965.
The movie won the Golden Bear at 13th Berlin International Film Festival in 1963. Today Kino International is one of the scenes of this Film Festival.
The postcard was published by VEB Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach/Vogtland. 
The poster was designed by Heinz Ebel.


Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Der Teufel und die 10 Gebote" 1964



This postcard is from 1965. Kino International advertised the movie Der Teufel und die 10 Gebote /  Le diable et les 10 commandements by Julien Duvivier (France/Italy 1962), released in East Germany on 24 January 1964.
The postcard was sent in 1970 as a birthday card to Monica, a schoolgirl in Eisenhüttenstadt. I bought this postcard from Ebay and got it on my birthday.
This is the marvellous world of postcards.
The postcard was published by VEB Bild und Heimat in Reichenbach/Vogtland. 
The poster was designed by Erhard Grüttner.

10.09.2016

Cinéma Le Pestel in Die/France

This building doesn't look like a cinema - there isn't any advertising for movies or for a cinema at all. It looks more like a nice apartment building. But on the back side of the postcard is written: DIE. - Cinéma "Le Pestel"
I was really surprised when I noticed, that the building is still used as a cinema. Look here: Cinéma Le Pestel. It was opened in 1943 and has one hall with 200 seats. 
Die is only a little commune with about 4,500 inhabitants in the Drôme department in southeastern France. The little town is situated in the Drôme valley, surrounded by the Glandasse mountain. An old place with an unique nature - and a beautiful cinema too. Spend your next holidays in Die!

04.09.2016

Kosmos in Tallinn/Estonia

Cinema Kosmos in Tallinn was opened on 10th march 1964 as the largest film theatre in the Baltics. There was one hall with 1015 seats, and the area of the screen reached 240 square meters. In 1997 the Kosmos cinema was entered in the register of protected landmarked buildings.
In December 2014, the Kosmos cinema reclaimed its title of the most advanced screening hall in the Baltic States. During the renovation for the construction of the new screen with the area of 300 square meters, the building was extended by one storey into the ground. Nowadays Kosmos IMAX has three screening halls. The largest, accommodating 322 viewers, is called IMAX after the technology in use. Apart from the IMAX hall, there are two smaller screening halls – LEM and KUBRICK, with 49 seats each. Regular 2D and 3D movies are shown in the smaller halls.
The postcard is from 1971. It is noteworthy that there is written the name of the architect on it: I. (Ilmar) Laasi.

Just got another postcard showing cinema Kosmos in Tallinn. This postcard is from 1987.

31.08.2016

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Der Leopard" 1966


Kino International in East Berlin was opened on 15 November 1963. The first shown movie was the Soviet Optimistische Tragödie / Optimistic tragedy / Оптимистическая трагедия by Samson Samsonov (USSR, 1963). The cinema has a screen of 17,5 metres and 608 seats in one hall. There were also a library and a youth club in this building.
It was the most important film theatre in East Berlin until the fall of the wall on 9th November 1989. On this day there was the premiere of the movie Coming Out by Heiner Carow (GDR, 1989) about young gays in East Berlin.
Today Kino International is used by many filmmakers for premieres due to the theater's ambience and is one of the venues of the Berlinale. Visitors from Berlin are fond of the theater's history and special atmosphere. The large film posters on the outside of the theater are still painted by hand.

The postcard is from 1966. The cinema advertises the movie The Leopard / Il Gattopardo by Luchino Visconti (Italy, 1963), realesed here on 7 January 1966. The poster was designed by Axel Bertram.
It is one of the rare postcards with a cinema at night - and in winter.

The cinema is still opened. It has been on the heritage list of the state of Berlin since 1990.


 

24.07.2016

Marmorhaus in Berlin/Germany

Marmorhaus in Berlin was built in 1912/13 by Hugo Pál - one of the eldest cinema buildings in Germany. It opened in 1913 and had 600 seats. The name Marmorhaus - Marble House - came from the marble front. It looked also great inside with an unique expressionistic design. It was really an awesome building at Kurfürstendamm, one of the most famous avenues in Berlin.
The cinema closed in 2001, after a renovation in 1998.
At Kinokompendium you can see pictures from this cinema in 2000. 

The cinema advertises the movie Der Dieb von Bagdad - The Thief of Bagdad - the 1940 British Technicolor film produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan. The film starred Conrad Veidt and child actor Sabu. A second hall at the cinema Lichtburg in Essen is called Sabu - in memory of him. 

Imagine, a cinema in Hungary was named after Alexander Korda - Korda Sándor Filmszínházra in Túrkeve.

The postcard is from 21st century and an old photo. There is written "Richtfest 1940 - topping-out ceremony 1940" on the postcard. But this isn't correct. The cinema opened in 1913. The movie The Thief of Bagdad was never shown in Germany during the Nazi-era. The actor Conrad Veidt migrated to Britain in 1933. There he starred in the title role of the original anti-Nazi version of Lion Feuchtwanger's novel, Jew Süss in 1934. And he played Major Strasser in Casablanca. 
 
There were reinstatemant works after war in 1948/49 (look at the neighbour houses). And the movie Der Dieb von Bagdad - The Thief of Bagdad realesed on 4th August 1949 in West German cinemas. So I think the cinema reopened with this movie

Another postcard with the cinema Marmorhaus from 1952: 


Kurfürstendamm at night, on the right the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, on the left cinema Marmorhaus.
The cinema advertises the film Heimweh nach Dir -Homesickness for you, a 1952 West German musical film directed by Robert A. Stemmle. It premiered on September 24, 1952 in the cinema Marmorhaus.


13.05.2016

Tovarishch in Bobruisk/Belarus


Bobruisk is a city in the Mogilev Region of eastern Belarus on the Berezina river with about 215,092 inhabitants. 
Cinema Tovarishch (Товарищ, in engl. Comrade) has worked since 1940. It was reconstructed in 2012 and a year later a second hall opened. Now it has 378 seats at all.

Zvezda in Baranovichi/Belarus

Baranovichi is a city in the Brest Region of western Belarus with about 173,000 inhabitants. Cinema Zvezda (Star) opened in 2006 with two halls with 514 seats at all. In former times the building was the House of the Officers.

25.04.2016

Radio City Music Hall in New York/USA

Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in Rockefeller Center in New York City. The building was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone and interior designer Donald Deskey in the Art Deco style. It was a project of  John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel and RCA (Radio Cooperation of America) chairman David Sarnoff. 
The Music Hall opened on December 27, 1932. Originally it was a hall for stage shows. On January 11, 1933, the Music Hall converted to a film theater with a spectacular stage show perfected by Roxy. The first film shown on the giant screen was Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen. Radio City Music Hall became the premiere showcase for films from the RKO-Radio Studio. The film-plus-stage-spectacle format continued at the Music Hall until 1979, with four complete performances presented every day.
Radio City Music Hall has 5,933 seats for spectators, and additional seating can be placed on the pit elevator during events that do not require that space bringing the seating capacity to over 6,000. It became the largest movie theater in the world at the time of its opening.
Now the focus of the theater is on concerts and live stage shows, movie premieres and feature runs have occasionally taken place there such as the Harry Potter film series.
I got this postcard via Postcrossing. The photo was taken in Christmas time and advertises The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, an annual Christmas stage musical and Christmas tradition since 1933. 

27.02.2016

Filmtheater Prager Straße - Rundkino in Dresden/Germany


I bought this two unwritten postcards today at the Geschichtsmarkt Dresden (Market of History), an unique place where people interested not professional in local history can discuss their projects. And you have the chance to buy old postcards, literature and other papers about the region. It remembers a public forum and I like visiting it every year.
The Filmtheater Prager Straße was opened on 7th October 1972 - the national holiday of the German Democratic Republic (GDR - East Germany). It was the largest cinema in the GDR with a big hall with 1.018 seats and a small hall with 132 seats. Even this building is a classical rotunda it is not an IMAX cinema or something like this. But there was the possibility to play movies in 70 mm. In the late 1990s I saw there the great movie 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick in 70 mm. I think today there isn't this technique anymore.
In 1990 the West German UFA got this cinema. They opened 5 new little halls in the basement. 
In summer 2002 the flood destroyed the cinemas in the basement. Financial problems followed. Since 2011 this cinema belongs to the Cineplex group and has now at all 5 halls with 1.400 places.
The building itself has been a listed monument since 2003.
The cinema was fanciless named after the street. But the people called it soon Rundkino - round cinema. This has been the official name since 2011.
The first, the upper postcard was published in 1978. The second is from 1984, it is a view from the town hall tower.
At the postcards you can see very well the idea of the architecture: the round building between the angled buildings and the free places and space between them. Today there isn't so much free space because of many new buildings. And there isn't any new postcard with this monument.

24.01.2016

Lichtburg in Essen, Germany

The cinema Lichtburg in Essen opened in 1928 with 2.000 seats. It was destroyed in 1943 and reopened in 1950. The Lichtburg has still today one hall with 1.250 seats. A second smaller hall with 150 seats is called Sabu - in memory of the Indian actor Sabu (1924 - 1963), famous from The Thief of Bagdad (1940).

Unfortunately the stamp isn't left on the card, so I can't identify the date/year of the postcard. I think the picture was made in the early 1930s.

So the Lichtburg is one of these old film palaces from the great 1920s era, of corse a listed monument and really worth seeing. There can still played movies in 70 mm, for instance the Tarantino's The Hateful 8.

A postcard maybe from the late 1960s showing Kettwiger Straße view to the Burgplatz with cinema Lichtburg left.

18.01.2016

Winterstein-Lichtspiele in Bitterfeld, Germany

Unfortunately I don't know much about this cinema. I think it was built in the 1950s and it was closed in the early 1990s.  In the same building there was a public library - one of the rare postcards with a library.
I'm still wondering about the name of the cinema: Winterstein (in English "Winter Stone"). It could be a place name. And then it could be from the actor Eduard von Winterstein (1871-1961). But he is more famous as a theatre actor than a movie actor. And he was still alive, when the cinema was opened. It wasn't usual to name a building after a living person. 
The sign above the name was the logo of Junge Pioniere, the East German youth organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14. Under the logo is written: "Unser Vorbild ist die Partei. Wenn sie uns ruft, sind wir bereit! - The party is our ideal. We are ready, when it calls."