Beautiful cinema is beautifully lost

THE ANNOUNCEMENT LAST WEEK about its closure Sine Alexandra, of Kallithea’s last winter cinema, by its administrators, because the owner of the venue decided not to renew their contract, spread sadness among local residents and cinephiles. Unless something changes, one more name will be added to the long list of historic cinemas in Athens that have suspended their operations in recent years.

It sounds absurd that one of the largest municipalities of Attica and the most densely populated in the country has only one indoor cinema and now risks being left without one. “Margarita”, “Etoile”, “Tropical”, “Afaia”, “Neraida”, “Sinan”, “Palladion”, “Crystal or Maxim” are just some of the many cinemas that Kallithea once had and which ended up as supermarkets , apartment buildings, parking lots, garages or shops.

A few days ago, the news that the winter Sine Palace in Pagrati, which in one year will complete its 100-year history, is in danger of changing its use and all possibilities remain open. The “Oscar” in Kato Patisia and the “Embassy” in Kolonaki they closed in 2022, the “Titania” in Omonia before, while last year the landmark cinema of the University, the “ideal”also with a history of 100 years of operation, despite the great mobilization that took place and the many protest events, while the “Astor” of the Korai gallery and “Iris”.

Movie theaters torn down and made the prey of predators, mega-contractors and entrepreneurs, movie theaters destroyed to be replaced by far more profitable businesses deeply hurt a city that captures the trauma and loss much later.

His case stands out in this melancholic chorus of cinemas that have rolled down the rolls “Atticon” and his “Apollo” which suffered great damage by fire in 2012, after molotov cocktails were thrown during the violent events of the memorial period, and which for 12 years we have been constantly hearing that their restoration and reopening is imminent. Poles of culture and cinematic glamor turned into depressing corpses, sad reminders of a dark decade and how we deal with culture in practice.

There are many reasons why the historic cinemas of Athens are closing one by one, but it is not only because the multiplexes, platforms and downloading took over and because people no longer frequent the cinemas. It is not simply a consequence of an inevitable technological evolution, the one that rendered video clubs obsolete. Darkrooms may have been hit hard by home cinema and later by the pandemic and lockdowns, but in the last year they have shown encouraging signs of recovery, while there were not a few times when we saw queues of people and theaters where a pin did not fall. The Schliemann-Mella Palace, of which “Ideal” was a part, was acquired by a hotel group to be converted into a luxury hotel unit, while “Alexandra” also did not face a sustainability problem. The rampant touristization of Athens, which is driving the city at full speed to become a vast hotel, portends an even bleaker future for arthouse theaters and neighborhood cinemas.

Cinemas are not just places of entertainment, they carry the burden of an influential collective experience, inextricably linked to the history of a city, while when they are lost they leave an irreplaceable void for those who have connected them to the personal memories of a lifetime.

In an emotional comment on Facebook, on the occasion of the possible lockout of the “Alexandra” cinema, the director Alexis Hatzigiannis notes: “At Alexandra, where I went to the cinema for the first time to see “101 Dalmatians”, where we were taken on a school trip to see “Flamber” with Robin Williams, where we went to see films with my family, with friends and with girls. Where we saw the old and new blockbusters, “Star Wars”, “Batman” and the rest, splatter and horror “lit and pure”, where we also saw Woody Allen and Hitchcock and Carpenter and other greats. Kallithea is almost the largest municipality of Athens, where will they go and what will they all do now? The downward slide does not seem to stop and takes away everything that enlightens us. So, sorry and goodbye, distant “Etoile” and “Tropical”, goodbye, “Margarita”, goodbye, “Ideal” and “Palace”. Goodbye, Alexandra.”

“Seeing splatter illuminated and pure” is a verse by Phoebus Delivorias and another of his songs, “Wilderness in Kallithea” fits like a glove here. Desert in the city and not only in Kallithea. With each new news about yet another movie theater disappearing and which we have inextricably linked with events in our lives, while we have always had it as a shelter and a traffic light, we feel even more alone.

Only as many laments and farewells as we repeat from time to time, with each new cinema that lowers its shutters, however many citizen movements take place (a movement of local residents has already been organized to save “Alexandra” and a call for gathering signatures) and as many protests are made, they usually have little effect. “Ideal” was not saved despite the great mobilization of the world and the efforts of the film community as well as the opposition and despite the interventions of many famous people, including George Lanthimos, and despite the fact that it was suffocatingly packed in all the farewell screenings that took place.

The state, on the other hand, watches uninvolved and washes its hands of the cultural destruction that is taking place. If one looks for responsibilities, in many cases, as for example with “Atticon” and “Apollo”, one will find a merry-go-round of responsibilities, private interests and investments, obstacles, legal disputes, legal obstacles and bureaucratic procedures. If Melina Merkouri’s vision for the summer cinemas that were in danger of extinction had not existed in the 90s and the then law of the Ministry of Education and Culture had not declared them preserved, we are horrified at the idea of ​​what would have become of them.

Movie theaters torn down and made the prey of predators, mega-contractors and entrepreneurs, movie theaters destroyed to be replaced by far more profitable businesses deeply hurt a city that captures the trauma and loss much later. Each new lock places another nail in the body of Athens and removes something from its historical memory.

And the cinemas that are beginning to disappear are only a part of a more general ostracism of recent history from the city. How many historic cafes, restaurants and hangouts survive in Athens, like their centuries-old counterparts in European capitals? Next to the “Ideal” cinema, for example, the historic “Ideal” restaurant has been closed for years, as has the “Loukoumades Aegean” a little further down in Panepistimiou. And if the establishment of the Greek state and the declaration of Athens as the capital only in the 19th century is an obvious answer for their lack, why were emblematic haunts of intellectuals and artists not saved, from the last century at least, such as the Patari of Lumidis and the Apotsos or the Brazilian of Bucharest? Can we imagine Paris without ‘Café de Flore’ or ‘Les Deux Magots’? Or closing the “Panthéon” cinema in the Latin Quarter to become a mall?

A rampage of ill-conceived modernization, lack of education and greed, combined with state indifference, seems to be sweeping away everything in its path. A sense of helplessness could not but permeate the inhabitants of this city who see the last oases of escape and upliftment and also historical cultural monuments slowly disappearing, if we were able to distinguish it.

It must be understood that the need to preserve the historical cinemas is not the nostalgia of some romantics, but that it is necessary to make efforts to declare the remaining theaters preserved or to have a relevant regulatory framework in order to save them.

Sentimentality and barren nostalgia are not the point. No, we don’t need any young Cycladic to sing our orphanhood. Cinemas are not only “honeysuckle and jasmine”, nor old people’s memories of their irretrievably lost youth, and they are not only our childhood memories or first loves, they are also vital landmarks for the present but also for the preservation of historical memory city’s.