Savoy movie theater

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Savoy film theater on Steindamm

The Savoy Filmtheater , also known as the Savoy Cinema or Das Savoy, is a cinema that has existed since 1957 in Steindamm 54 in the Hamburg district of St. Georg . The cinema operated by Hans-Joachim Flebbes XAVOY Filmtheater GmbH is in the premium cinema segment .

The program focuses on current films, some in the original language with subtitles , but also live broadcasts from theaters such as the Royal National Theater London, the Royal Shakespeare Company or the Kenneth Branagh Theater Company, as well as operas and concerts .

Technical Equipment

The Savoy has a screening room with 324 seats, 99 of which are boxes in the last four rows and 225 on the floor in nine rows. The seating consists of armchairs with adjustable backrests and plenty of legroom, some double armchairs and, in the first row, with fold-out footrests. The demonstration technology consists of a 3D-capable Christie Solaria CP 2230 video projector with 2K image resolution (upgradeable to 4K technology ) and high frame rate technology. A 7.1 system with Crown Audio DSi 2000 amplifiers with a total of 30,000 watts of amplifier power is used for the sound technology. Since 2013, the cinema has had a Philips DP75 analog film projector that can play both 35 mm and 70 mm films. The canvas measures 18 × 8 m. The cinema is barrier-free and offers three wheelchair spaces.

history

The Savoy opened on March 14, 1957 under Herbert Steppan as the most modern cinema in Germany at the time, which was specially designed for the new, American-based, Todd-AO film format with a curved wide screen. The cinema was equipped with a 70 mm projector with 6-channel magnetic sound. The canvas measured 17.4 × 7.6 m (according to Reissmann 20 × 8.5 m) and had an arc of 120 ° with a maximum depth of 4.40 m. The sides of the screen could be pulled back in order to display conventional films in the correct perspective, such as in the Cinemascope format. The auditorium offered 957 or 825 spectators, and the back rows of seats could be separated by a curtain if necessary. The opening film of the cinema, however, was still the conventional 35 mm film Red Dust by Irving Rapper . Todd-AO films on 70 mm came later with Fred Zinnemann's music film Oklahoma! for the performance, followed by other film classics in the same format. After the death of Mike Todd, the managing director of Todd-AO, however, no new films were produced in Todd-AO format, the technology of which the Savoy was specially tailored to. At the end of the 1960s, Steppan handed over management to Walter Jonigkeit .

In 1978 Heinz Riech took over the Savoy into the UFA Group and in 1980 had the cinema divided into five " box cinemas " with 461, 218, 138, 89 and 70 seats. In 1994 the cinema was renovated again and the small projection rooms were rebuilt into a large hall and a small studio in the basement. Despite the renovation work, the number of visitors in the Savoy declined in the following years, as did the environment of the cinema in Steindamm, where arcades , erotic shops , hour hotels and international shops increasingly settled. Finally, the UFA gave up the cinema on December 17, 1998. Harris Patscha then took over the Savoy and until 2003 performed Indian Hindi films (so-called Bollywood films) and occasionally films from Turkish cultural associations. The foyer was converted into the sales area of ​​an oriental supermarket and the cinema room as a warehouse.

From 2008 to October 30, 2011, the Savoy was temporarily used as an alternative quarter for the Metropolis Kino , which is currently under renovation .

In 2013, Hans-Joachim Flebbe took over the Savoy, had it renovated for 1.2 million euros and expanded into a premium cinema for Hamburg that was planned for a longer period of time. Gary Rohwedder was won over by the recently closed Streit's film theater as managing director . Films were also continued from there in their original versions. The Savoy opened on June 19, 2013 with the Australian film The Sapphires .

literature

  • Gerhard Witte: Everything brand new - the reopening of a legendary film theater . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 20 , 2013, p. 16-19 ( PDF [accessed February 26, 2020]).
  • Michael Töteberg (Ed.): Ahoj Savoy !: Cinema in St. Georg - for the whole of Hamburg . VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89965-474-5 (collection of articles. With contributions by Fatih Akin, as well as other expressions of solidarity).
  • Volker Reissmann: From the premier temple to the ghost cinema: The checkered history of the “Savoy” (1957–2003) . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 11 , 2004, p. 20–26 ( PDF [accessed April 15, 2020]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Corporate body data set of the German National Library
  2. ↑ English Theater. In: Savoy Hamburg. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Hamburg Savoy. In: Kinowiki. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Cinemas - SAVOY film theater. Retrieved May 26, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Gerhard Witte: Hamburg's cinema jewel, the Savoy, has been reopened. In: in70mm.com. December 21, 2018, accessed April 13, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Volker Reissmann: From the premier temple to the ghost cinema: The checkered history of the “Savoy” (1957–2003) . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 11 , 2004, p. 20–26 ( PDF [accessed April 15, 2020]).

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 '15 "  N , 10 ° 0' 50.6"  E