17.11.2019

Cinéma Pathé in Cirque d'Hiver Paris/France


This postcard was sent in 1914. The building is still standing in Paris and used for big venues.
The Cirque d'Hiver ("Winter Circus") was designed by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff and was opened by Emperor Napoleon III on 11 December 1852. The circus originally had 3.900 places. The building was not only used for circuses, also musical concerts and exhibitions. Since 29 August 1907, electric light illuminates the interiors.

But I couldn't find facts about using this building as a cinema. In 1914, the cinema belongs to Pathé. The writing above the entrance is very interesting: Ex Cirque d'Hiver. That means showing movies there was not only for certain time, it should be for an indefinite length of time. The time of the circus should have been over ...
But it could be only a short time of cinema, maybe because of the beginning of the war
Since 1934, the circus is owned by the Bouglione family. Today, in addition to the Cirque d'Hiver performances, there are numerous other types of events, such as dressage events, musicals or fashion shows.
 

16.11.2019

Kino in Kamenický Šenov/Czech Republic


The architect Leo Kammel was born in Steinschönau/Kamenický Šenov in 1885. He built this cinema in 1928, two years before the Kino in Nový Jičín.
On the postcard there is written "Kino und Stadttheater Steinschönau - Cinema and City Theatre". But above the entrance is only written "Kino". You can see a man in one opened window, maybe Leo Kammel?
The cinema is still in use, now named Kino Hvězda (english "Star").

03.11.2019

Kino International in Berlin/Germany - "Die Brücke" 1964

I'm sure, Kino International in Berlin is the most printed cinema on postcard worldwide. This is No. 20 in my collection showing different posters - and it is not the last one.
The poster today advertises the film Die Brücke / The Bridge, a German anti-war film by Bernhard Wicki from 1959. 
It tells about the last days in war 1945 in a small Bavarian town. Seven underaged boys receive the militarily senseless order to defend a bridge from the advancing US troops. Only one will survive the mission ...

The film received many awards and nominations, among them a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1960. It is one of the best German films of all time. It came to East German cinemas on 4 September 1964.


The postcard was published by Graphokopie H. Sanders KG Berlin.
The poster was designed by Jürgen Großmann.

02.11.2019

Kino in Nový Jičín/Czech Republic

Neutitschein, Lichtspielhaus is written on this postcard, sent in 1941 by military mail.

The cinema opened on 25 December 1930, with 720 seats and named Kino Kosmos. It was built by the architect Leo Kammel (1885-1948).
Leo Kammel senior was the son of glass dealer Willibald Kammel and Johanna née Palme. In 1902–1905, he studied drawing and painting at the School of Applied Arts in Prague. Later he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied architecture under Professor Jan Kotěra. After graduating, he settled in Vienna around 1913, where he worked as an independent architect. In 1929 he lectured at the Technical University of Vienna. During the interwar period he designed in Austria, especially in Vienna, where he participated in the design of residential units and created the marketplace project (1935) and in Czechoslovakia. His extensive work is not fully documented. In the period before the First World War he worked in the Classicist style under the influence of Otto Wagner. In the 1920s he was influenced by Czech Cubist architecture and was considered an important representative of Cubism. In the interwar period he was influenced by decorativism and expressionism and the work of Peter Behrens (1868 - 1940) and Clemens Holzmeister (1886 - 1983). Since the 1930s, expressionist creation has shifted to functionalism. 
The cinema building in Nový Jičín is influenced of Erich Mendelsohn's work (1887 - 1953). You can find other cinemas designed by Leo Kammel in Baden/Austria (Cinema Paradiso), in Kamenický Šeno and in Krnov.

The cinema in Nový Jičín is still in use, its name is now Kino Kvéten - Cinema May. It was renovated in 2005 by Architráv. Now it has one modern equipped hall with a total capacity of 455 seats (287 seats on the ground floor, balconies 86 + 82 seats).