Metropolis cinema

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Entrance to the Metropolis Kino on Kleine Theaterstrasse, April 2016

The Metropolis cinema is since 1956 existing municipally funded cinema in Hamburg district of Neustadt . The cinema is run by the Kinemathek Hamburg e. V. operated.

The projection room from the 1950s has 270 seats, divided into parquet and tier , with a screen of 8 m × 4 m (32 m 2 ) in CinemaScope format . The technical equipment includes 8 mm, 16 mm and 35 mm film projectors with which it is possible to show silent films at original speeds of 16 to 24 frames per second and two-strip films in which the film and sound track run on separate film strips. A digital video projector is available for current productions . A Dolby SRD sound system is used as the sound system .

The program focuses on silent films with musical accompaniment, film classics, international films (world films) in their original version with German subtitles ( OmU ) or spoken translations, avant-garde films and German productions outside the mainstream . In addition, the Metropolis is the venue for premieres of smaller film distributors and almost all Hamburg film festivals such as the Fantasy Film Festival , Japan Film Festival , or the Lesbian and Gay Film Days that started here in 1989. An average of 50 to 60 films are shown each month. In addition, there are regular collaborations with Hamburg colleges, universities, museums, the CineGraph and the association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime - the Association of Antifascists .

history

The Metropolis Kino has its origins in the Dammtor Theater , which was built in 1951 at Dammtorstrasse 30 as a non-stop contemporary cinema . The program was later switched to international productions for committed moviegoers. The demonstration hall built in the back yard of the local office building had 350 seats in the parquet and tier, with a stage in front. It was accessible via the long passage to the former courtyard, via a two-story foyer . From 1961 to 1978 it was proven as a film art theater Dammtor . The original stage was dismantled in favor of the CinemaScope screen. In 1984 the ceiling of the hall and in 1991 the seating were renovated.

In 1978 Heiner Roß and Martin Aust took over the cinema after they started working with the Initiative Kommunales Kino e. V. had already made several attempts to establish a municipal cinema in Hamburg. On October 13, 1979 they opened the Metropolis Kino with Fritz Lang's eponymous silent film Metropolis from 1927. After Roß, Aust became managing director. Around the turn of the millennium, 1999/2000, the building was bought by the investor Norddeutsche Grundbesitz , who wanted to tear down the old building and build a new office building with a shopping center in its place. It was possible to convince the investors of the maintenance of the cinema and to agree to a continuation at the old location with similar rental conditions. During the construction phase, games were temporarily relocated to the vacant Savoy Filmtheater on Steindamm . Construction started in 2008. Unforeseen problems with the building site delayed the completion of the building. The old cinema was rotated by 90 ° from its original location on the ground floor of the courtyard and relocated to the basement of the building. The entrance to the cinema was also moved from Dammtorstraße to Kleine Theaterstraße 10, which branches off from it, which also changed its address . The interior fittings of the demonstration hall from the 1950s, which are partially protected as a historical monument, have been modernized in terms of fire protection and safety technology and reinstalled true to the original.

On November 1, 2011, games were resumed in the Metropolis House , which is now also named after the cinema . The cinema is barrier-free for wheelchair users without outside help.

meaning

Except for the 1991 seating, the security requirements of the cinema are in their original condition from the 1950s. Its interior is a listed building . The Metropolis Kino has a film archive with more than 5500 titles. It includes the holdings of the document archive of the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Funding as well as American productions by Hamburg residents in exile from the 1940s.

literature

  • Joachim Paschen, Volker Reissmann: Turned around its own axis and sunk into the ground: The resurrection of the Metropolis cinema . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 18 , 2011, p. 15-19 ( PDF [accessed April 13, 2020]).
  • Nora Aust: 35 years of Metropolis - A special communal cinema . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 21 , 2014, p. 26–27 ( PDF [accessed April 13, 2020]).
  • Anna Hoffmann: 20 years of the Metropolis municipal cinema . Ed .: Kinemathek Hamburg eV Kinemathek, Hamburg 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wifried Hippen: The rescue of the cinema. In: taz.de. January 18, 2018, accessed April 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Metropolis. In: cinema database. Film and TV Museum Hamburg, accessed on April 13, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Joachim Paschen, Volker Reissmann: Turned around its own axis and sunk into the ground: The resurrection of the Metropolis cinema . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 18 , 2011, p. 15-19 ( PDF [accessed February 25, 2020]).
  4. ^ A b Maike Schade: Time travel: Metropolis Kino celebrates its 40th anniversary. In: Scene Hamburg. Retrieved April 13, 2020 .
  5. ^ A b Nora Aust: 35 years of Metropolis - A special communal cinema . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 21 , 2014, p. 26–27 ( PDF [accessed February 26, 2020]).
  6. ^ Dammtor Theater. In: cinema database. Film and TV Museum Hamburg, accessed on February 19, 2020 .
  7. ^ Dammtor Film Art Theater. In: cinema database. Film and TV Museum Hamburg, accessed on February 19, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Hamburg Monument List on the Open Data Portal Hamburg, and Monument List of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, status October 21, 2013 (XML; 13.9 MB). Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, cultural authority, monument protection office, 2013. ID 14855 (1675)

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 23 ″  N , 9 ° 59 ′ 19 ″  E