Panorama in Berlin-Britz / Germany

 

The Panorama Filmtheater was built in 1958/1959 in Berlin-Britz, planned by the architect Gerhard Fritsche. From 1951 to 1961 he was involved in 17 cinema projects, above all in West-Berlin.

The free-standing building had a futuristic shape, the outer wall caught the eye with its bluish-white block stripes. At that time there was a row of shops in this cinema building.

The cinema had 893 seats with high-upholstered armchairs from Schröder & Henzelmann. With a Zeiss Ikon and Ernemann X projection apparatus and Zeiss Ikon amplifiers and loudspeakers, widescreen films could be shown in 1:2.35 and 1:2.55 in CinemaScope with one-channel optical sound and four-channel magnetic sound. 

In 1980 the cinema was closed and a supermarket opened and is still in use. The building is a listed monument.

The photo was taken in 1961/62, the postcard was sent in 1968. The cinema advertises the movie Die Irrfahrten des Herkules / Goliath contro i giganti / Goliath against the Giants (Italy / Spain 1961, directed by Guido Malatesta. The movie came to West German cinemas on December 8, 1961. The German version was 8 minutes shorter than the original and the hero's name was Hercules and not Goliath.

Kinema in Köln / Germany

I bought this 1914 printed postcard, because I am interested also in naming the cinema and cinemas. The word Kinema for a cinema was used only in Cologne and area. Cinemas with the name Kinema were in Cologne, Düren, Remscheid and Velbert between 1908-1914. The word kinema has survived to this day in the Cologne dialect.

The Pariser Kinema in Cologne was opened in 1908. The French production and distribution company Léon Gaumont was a silent partner in this cinema. The cinema owed its name and program to this business connection. With the beginning of the war in August 1914, the cinema was renamed Germania.

Names tell history.

In the last carnival season before the war, the enthusiasm of the people of Cologne for the cinema even became the subject of a car on the Shrove Monday procession. It was themed "Theatre - Then and Now" and showed a theatre with empty tiers while people crowded in front of a cinema next door.

And the people of Cologne loved a song with the refrain "Frau Flöck die sitz em Kinema" (Lyrics by Alfred Neuwald, music by Emil Neumann, Kapellmeister am Reichshallen-Theater in Köln).

The song tells of Mrs. Flöck, who sits in the cinema all day and neglects her duties as a housewife. So her husband gets divorced.

The postcard was printed in 1914. The picture was drawn by E. Aege. The cinema is advertising two films "Der Mord / The Murder" and - very remarkable - "Die Träne. Kriegsdrama in zwei Akten / The Tear. War Drama in two acts". Maybe more people should have gone to the movies and kept their eyes and minds open ...

Postcards tell history.

Kölle alaaf - forever!

Kino Moskva in Piešťany / Slovakia

Piešťany is a town in Western Slovakia. It is the biggest and best known spa town in Slovakia and has around 28,000 inhabitants. And a cinema, too.

The Kino Fontána (Cinema Fontaine) started showing films on December 1, 1951. Then under the name Kino Moskva. In 1958, the cinema hall was rebuilt and panoramic films could shown. Because of the popularity of the spa, a large number of visitors came to the cinema in socialist times. Some films even premiered in Piešťany. 

A natural cinema extension was built in 1959. This area was put back into service in the summer of 2020. It has now a capacity of 1,000 seats and it is also equipped to host concerts and performances by musical groups and soloists.

The cinema has today a capacity of the fixed auditorium of 262 seats. With additional retractable side and rear seats, the capacity can be increased to a maximum of 386 seats.

The postcard was sent in 1963.

La Pergola in Vidiciatico / Italy

 

The Cinema La Pergola writes on its website: 

"The Cinema Teatro La Pergola in Vidiciatico, in the municipality of Lizzano in Belvedere (in the province of Bologna), was founded in 1948 in the climate of the great reconstruction of the first post-war period, in a vacant area near a ballroom. The two structures should form a single recreational hub for citizens. The first manager, Zanasi, also owns the Cinema Puccini in Lizzano in Belvedere and often the same film is shown in the two cinemas on the same day, with very quick car journeys from one country to another to transmit the film. The cinema has an instant hit with audiences, especially in the summer season when it operates from early afternoon to midnight.

For many years, La Pergola was an important point of reference for the municipality and also for other nearby municipalities, where the other cinemas were gradually closing. The cinema La Pergola inherited a treasure from the Cinema Puccini: a projector for films from the 1950s, which is (occasionally) maintained and used and still works today.

In the 2000s, the property was acquired by the country's hoteliers' association, which guarantees its operation during the summer season and Christmas holidays. However, the crisis of the cinema also affects La Pergola and for some years the cinema has been practically closed, surviving at times thanks to the passion of a young operator in the country, Federico Roda, who keeps it alive.

In 2018 Don Giacomo Stagni, the parish priest of Vidiciatico, offers to manage it and with the help of some friends and volunteer villagers he reopens the hall and also manages to buy a new projector for digital films.

In the years from 2018 to 2021 the Cinema Teatro La Pergola in Vidiciatico was opened for the summer months and in 2021 it will also reopen for the Christmas period, offering visitors and citizens quality film festivals, organized in collaboration with the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and ACEC Emilia Romagna and thanks to the contributions of Corno all scale will be realized."

The story of Cinema Teatro La Pergola is a fine example of how a cinema can survive in a small town - with the support of many different people, fueled by enthusiasm and optimism. A story worth filming.

The postcard was sent in 1955. 

Empire Cinema in Sandwich / United Kingdom

 

The Empire Cinema in Sandwich / County of Kent writes on its website: "On 26th June, 1937 the Empire Cinema in Sandwich opened its doors for the first time. The films chosen for the original opening performance were Trust the Navy starring Lupino Lane and Craig's Wife starring Rosalind Russell as well as a coloured rhapsody plus the Gaumont British News. The cinema was described as a modern, up to date and luxurious building situated in a prominent position near to the Guildhall in the centre of the town. The auditorium was of spacious design seating 600 people in total in the circle and stalls areas.

Now the cinema, which re-opened in 1993, is operational in the former circle section of the building and has still retained the art deco architecture and can accommodate 130 people. The auditorium has been completely re-seated with more comfortable and luxurious seats and the original decorative neon lighting has been restored to the frontage of the theatre.

The latest digital projection equipment has been installed with Dolby digital sound. This will now enable the cinema to obtain and screen the latest film releases in this new improved format. In addition, it is planned to present cultural live shows of opera, ballet and theatre content on a regular basis in 2014. The arrival of digital cinema will provide our audience with a wide choice of entertainment with the added enjoyment of enhanced viewing.

The Lounge section is situated in the original stalls area and has been refurbished with comfortable chairs and tables and a maple dance floor installed in front of the cinema stage. A fully licensed bar is now available in the Lounge. A popular attraction in this area has been the monthly classic cinema presentations."

I got this postcard from Laura. The view of the cinema was painted by John C. Burrows. 

Thank you very much, Laura!

A Break

My blog has been paused for a while.

I started a new project: a blog / catalog raisonné of the graphic artist Eva Johanna Rubin (1925-2001).

Her pictures have accompanied me throughout my life.

As this is a completed work, the end is in sight and there will be something about cinema postcards again.

Cinema "Pushkin" in Chelyabinsk / Russia

 

These are not easy times to write about cinemas in Russia.

I recieved this postcard from Evgeniya from Chelyabinsk via Postcrossing. She sells postcards in her own web shop Edencards, including this one. The picture is painted by Mikhail Voronov-Kushakovsky, an artist from Chelyabinsk.

Cinema Pushkin in Chelyabinsk opened it doors in 1937, the centenary of the death of the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin. Located almost in the very center, the cinema has become the most important component of the “Pushkin corner” of the city, along with Pushkin Street, the park and the library. 

The cinema wrotes: "For the natural life of a civilized man, memory is necessary: aesthetic and moral experience. For this, people come to our cinema. We want to present cinema 'different', author's. It goes differently to its audience. But most importantly, we hope that in our city the cinema named after Pushkin has already formed its audience."

What films are shown in these days there?

- La Croisade (Louis Garrel, France 2021)

- Otrovy i vybros (Kirill Sokolov, Russia 2021)

- Où est Anne Frank? (Ari Folman, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Israel)

- Oslo, 31 August (Joachim Trier, 2011, Norway)

- Andrey Rublyov (Andrey Takovsky, 1969, USSR)

Спасибо, Евгения, за интересную открытку!

Panonija in Duboka / Croatia

 

I wrote in my last post that the word "bioskop" is used in Croatia for "cinema" because of the Bioscop invented by brothers Skladanowsky.

Just found a postcard showing "bioskop Panonija" in Duboka. The postcard is published in former Yugoslavia, maybe between 1970 and 1980, when the cinema was newly built.

The place seems to be the village Duboka / Vojvodina in the Pannonian Basin in Croatia. But I couldn't find any fact about this cinema.

Wintergarten in Berlin / Germany

 

The Wintergarten in Berlin has never been a cinema - but plays an important role in the history of cinema. Here were showed moving pictures to a paying audience on 1 November 1895. This was shortly before the public debut of the Lumière Brothers' Cinématographe in Paris on 28 December 1895. 

The short films were shown by Max and Emil Skladanowsky with their invented Bioscop (or Bioskop) - an early movie projector. But the technology and quality of Skladanowsky's devices and the demonstrations weren't so good as other inventors already practicing at the same time. The Bioscop needed two film strips, which meant a considerable additional technical effort compared to the usual principle with only one film strip, such as that successfully used by the Lumiéres.

The brothers Skladanowsky traveled through Europe with their invention in 1896 and 1897. The word from their projector become the term for the word cinema in Serbia (Bioskop), the Netherlands (Bioscoop) and the former Dutch colony Indonesia (Bioskop).

The Wintergarten itself was originally a large winter garden in the 1881 opened Central-Hotel in the center of Berlin. Since 1887, this place became the number one address for variety shows in Berlin and Germany. The building was destroyed in World War II. 

In 1992, a theatre in Potsdamer Strasse - not far away from the old place - was opened with the name Wintergarten. As written on the homepage, they want to continue the tradition of the old Wintergarten variety. The postcard shows the new Wintergarten advertising the Rock variety show Forever Young in 2012.

I got this postcard via Postcrossing from Tiny. Danke, Tiny.

Ciné-théatre de la Ponatiere in Échirolles / France

 Échirolles is a city near Grenoble, Ponatiere is a district of Échirolles.

The cinema opened in 1941, but it has never been a place exclusively dedicated to film screenings. It is more of a party hall in which spectators came to attend various shows. Screenings were to be more frequent in the 1940s and 1950s, when television was not yet widespread in all homes.

Now there is a big multiplex in Échirolles with 12 screens and the writing on the building has disappeared. It seems to be only a stage now.