So, we’re all back from coffee and bathroom breaks? Let us continue this peregrination along the path of the cinemas Lino remembers from earliest childhood, or from however old he was when his mother would give herself some time off and take him to the movies at Campo Santa Margherita. Or when he and his friends would head for the parish halls, or patronati, on Sunday afternoons.
Let’s start here:
Going around a few corners, we pass the still-lamented (by me) former Cinema Accademia. I went to some American film here during my first year in Venice and remember absolutely nothing about it because I spent the entire time translating the amazingly banal dialogue for Lino, who eventually went to sleep (dark, soothing atmosphere….). We didn’t go the movies for a long time after that.
The tour ends here. I’m sure there are other places which Lino doesn’t remember, or never went to. Maybe some of my Venetian readers will offer some other information, which would be great.
Before I ring the curtain down on this triple-feature, I discover that I left out a cinema that belonged on yesterday’s list. It’s on the Strada Nova a few steps from the Santa Sofia traghetto dock/Ca’ d’Oro vaporetto stop:
THIS IS SO GOOD, Erla, you really ought to make it into a little book and get the Film Festival to publish it! Please say you will!!! (I’m already thinking how I can make a map and do the tour…)But I’m actually off to Tigotà right now, and I ALWAYS appreciate the title on the facade!
Amazing trilogy, Erla! The research you’ve done and so beautifully communicated is truly impressive, and surely of interest people in official capacities. This may be superficial, or perhaps obvious, but my first thought about the incredible number of movie theaters Venice has had is that there’s a correlation between the fantasy of film and the most fantasy rich city in the world.
That’s a very nice tour; many thanks. The insides of S Margarita are still much as they were when it was a cinema, and are lovely.
On a visit to the gardens of Palazzo Soranzo Capello on Rio Marin we were told that the grounds regularly served as a cinema during warm weather, I believe up to the ’50s or even later. And I’ve enjoyed the films they show in campo S Polo (and used to in S Angelo and god knows what other campi).
During the late 60’s my children and I spent many rainy day hours in the Cinema Vecio….always smoked filled. It was one of the ways we learned Italian and always an adventure. I, too, miss the Accademia. Thanks for this trilogy and walk through Venice.
I’m glad somebody else has good memories about going to the movies here. Sorry about the smoke, but those were the days of smoke. It’s a miracle we’re still alive.
Thank you for all these posts. Fascinating! I have spent many hours “stalking,” as my hubby says, the streets and canals of Venice on google maps, trying to make even a little sense of the city. I love google maps! I once spent a whole afternoon looking for a particular very large house that was mentioned in a book I had read. I found it!
I’m glad that google maps worked out for you. I’ve experienced (and been told by others also) some distressing lapses on its part; evidently its signals — or whatever you call its tracking mechanism — isn’t always at its best with the narrow streets and the sotoporteghi. I still tend to trust paper maps more than satellite-assisted methods, but that’s just me, out here living in whatever century this was.
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THIS IS SO GOOD, Erla, you really ought to make it into a little book and get the Film Festival to publish it! Please say you will!!! (I’m already thinking how I can make a map and do the tour…)But I’m actually off to Tigotà right now, and I ALWAYS appreciate the title on the facade!
Great idea!
Amazing trilogy, Erla! The research you’ve done and so beautifully communicated is truly impressive, and surely of interest people in official capacities. This may be superficial, or perhaps obvious, but my first thought about the incredible number of movie theaters Venice has had is that there’s a correlation between the fantasy of film and the most fantasy rich city in the world.
That’s a very nice tour; many thanks. The insides of S Margarita are still much as they were when it was a cinema, and are lovely.
On a visit to the gardens of Palazzo Soranzo Capello on Rio Marin we were told that the grounds regularly served as a cinema during warm weather, I believe up to the ’50s or even later. And I’ve enjoyed the films they show in campo S Polo (and used to in S Angelo and god knows what other campi).
During the late 60’s my children and I spent many rainy day hours in the Cinema Vecio….always smoked filled. It was one of the ways we learned Italian and always an adventure. I, too, miss the Accademia. Thanks for this trilogy and walk through Venice.
I’m glad somebody else has good memories about going to the movies here. Sorry about the smoke, but those were the days of smoke. It’s a miracle we’re still alive.
Thank you for all these posts. Fascinating! I have spent many hours “stalking,” as my hubby says, the streets and canals of Venice on google maps, trying to make even a little sense of the city. I love google maps! I once spent a whole afternoon looking for a particular very large house that was mentioned in a book I had read. I found it!
I’m glad that google maps worked out for you. I’ve experienced (and been told by others also) some distressing lapses on its part; evidently its signals — or whatever you call its tracking mechanism — isn’t always at its best with the narrow streets and the sotoporteghi. I still tend to trust paper maps more than satellite-assisted methods, but that’s just me, out here living in whatever century this was.