Cine-Esplanada Miramar

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Cine-Esplanada Miramar (2008)

The Cine-Esplanada Miramar , also Cinema Miramar , is an open-air cinema in the Angolan capital Luanda in the Miramar district of the Ingombota district on Largo Alioune Blondin Beye . Opened in 1959, the outdoor cinema was designed by the two brothers João and Luís Garcia de Castilho and was the first of its kind in the entire Portuguese colony of Angola. With its modern architecture, the symbolized the importance of cinema in the colony.

history

The first cine esplanada in Angola

Cine-Esplanada Miramar just before Angola's independence in 1973

After the end of the Second World War, the Portuguese entrepreneur Joaquim Ribeiro Belga secured the marketing rights to initially well-known Spanish films and American universal films in Portugal, thereby building up a broad corporate network. With the founding of the two companies Sulcine and Moçambique Filmes in the 1950s, he secured the sole marketing rights for films in the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. With a strategy comparable to that of the American film industry, Ribeiro Belga began to build large cinemas in the colonies in order to show the films marketed by his company there.

Ribeiro Belga developed the principle of the “Cine-Esplanada”, a kind of open-air cinema with a structural infrastructure. After the concept did not work in Lisbon, he pushed for implementation in the Portuguese colonies, initially in Angola. The first Cine-Esplanada was to be built in the capital of the Portuguese colony, Luanda. Belga commissioned the two brothers João and Luís Garcia de Castilho with the design, the construction was carried out by the family business of the two architects, Empresa Castilhos Ltda.

The Castilho brothers designed an open-air cinema whose architecture was geared towards the climatic conditions of the Angolan coast: A hillside cinema was created, separated from the public space by differently designed walls, with exposed stone, tiles, plaster and small lighting. Parts of the tiers were covered by a wooden roof suspended from concrete pillars, including the projection booth. A 9 meter high and 23 wide, brick canvas, against the background of the view of the Bay of Luanda with the island of Luanda, formed the end of the auditorium. A bar with a terrace ( Bar Esplanada) was planned at the edge of the auditorium . The cinema, which held 1644 spectators and was thus the largest in the colony, was named after the district in which it was located, Miramar, in English "sea view".

Opening and operation

The cinema opened on October 26, 1959 and quickly gained great popularity among the city's white residents, with blacks denied entry. Especially the combination of going to the cinema, the opportunity to spend mild nights outside and enjoying the view of the bay were considered a special leisure activity. Manuel Fonseca writes that the cinema “had an absolutely divine, spectacular view, at night, with the lights of the bay, with the lights of the port. [...] It was a double spectacle. ”. Numerous well-known films from the 1960s and 1970s were shown in the Cine-Esplanada Miramar. But plays were also performed on the stage in front of the walled screen, including Cazumbi by Luis Montês and the Jograis de São Paulo theater group .

After independence

With the independence of the Portuguese colony of Angola and the withdrawal of the Portuguese colonial power, numerous Portuguese settlers also left the country, including the cinema entrepreneur Ribeiro Belga. The cinema - like all private buildings - became the property of the Angolan state. Films were occasionally shown in the following years. However, the exact development up to the present day is unknown. The structure of the building has been preserved to this day, and is occasionally used for performances.

For years there have been plans to demolish the open-air cinema. According to media reports, a new building for the Chinese embassy is to be built on the site. The building is not a listed building, but is listed in the Portuguese monument database Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico , which also includes works by former Portuguese colonies, under the number 31666.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Paulo Cunha: Citizen Ribeiro Belga, o mundo lusófono a seus pés. In: À pala de Walsh. July 8, 2018, accessed April 9, 2020 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ a b c d Maria Alice Vaz de Almeida Mendes Correia: O modelo do urbanismo e da arquitetura do movimento moderno Luanda 1950 - 1975 . Ed .: Universidade de São Paulo. São Paulo 2018, p. 371 ff . ( available online [PDF]).
  3. ↑ a b HPIP. Retrieved April 10, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Afonso Gonçalves Quintã: Cineteatros Angolanos: tipologías (1932/75) . November 17, 2017 ( up.pt [accessed April 10, 2020]).
  5. ^ Rita Garcia: Luanda como ela era, 1969-1975: histórias e memórias de uma cidade inesquecível . Lisboa 2016, ISBN 978-989-741-470-1 , p. 58 .
  6. ↑ Miguel Gomes: Cinema dos tempos que já lá vão ... In: Buala.org. December 13, 2010, accessed April 10, 2020 (Portuguese).
  7. ↑ Washington Santos Nascimento, Marilda dos Santos Monteiro das Flores: LUANDA E SUAS SEGREGAÇÕES: UMA ANÁLISE A PARTIR DAS SALAS DE CINEMA (1940-1960) . In: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (ed.): Mulemba . tape 9 , no. 17 , 2017, ISSN  2176-381X , p. 80-89 , doi : 10.35520 / mulemba.2017.v9n17a14598 .
  8. ^ Cinema Miramar. In: redeangola.info. April 21, 2016, accessed April 10, 2020 (Portuguese).
  9. ^ Embaixada da China em Angola vai ocupar um edifício a ser construído em Luanda. In: Macauhub. April 12, 2017, Retrieved April 11, 2020 (Portuguese).
  10. ^ Tiago Lourenço: Cine-Miramar. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA). 2011, accessed April 11, 2020 (Portuguese).

Coordinates: 8 ° 48 ′ 21.7 "  S , 13 ° 14 ′ 55.8"  E