Читать книгу 100 Favourite Places - Группа авторов - Страница 14

10

Kino Babylon

MITTE

Kino Babylon opened its doors in 1929, when Berlin was hardly in need of another movie house. At the time, the city boasted 378 cinemas, 105 of them offering theatre shows alongside movie screenings. Nearby Münzstrasse was a cinematic epicenter and just around the corner, on Rosenthaler Platz, was Berlin’s largest cinema UT (later UFA).

But with the construction of the Volksbühne 15 years earlier, Bülowplatz (today’s Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz) had become a cultural center, and the Babylon was built to round out the artistic feel of the area. Berlin-born architect Hans Poelzig designed the cinema to be cutting-edge: in addition to the coin-operated automated dining of its Automatenrestaurant, it offered events that flirted with the avant-garde. It was crowned with Germany’s largest cinema pipe organ, the Philips-Kino-Orgel, which provided accompaniment throughout the silent film era (as well as lending sound effects), and is played alongside silent film screenings even today.

Indeed, the venue represents a classic era of cinema that’s otherwise only found nowadays in, well, the movies. Films here are advertised in large black letters on an illuminated block on the building’s curved facade (built in the New Objectivity style), and the lavish main screening room is decorated with a thick golden curtain and brass-rimmed lamps more reminiscent of an opera house.

Two studio screening rooms in the back may not be quite as grand, but they have allowed the Babylon to expand its programme to include readings, concerts and an impressive run of alternative festivals such as the Berlin Independent Film Festival and North Korea Film Week.

Having survived a fire caused by WWII Allied bombs, a carbon monoxide leak from a faulty heating system and near-collapse due to a weak ceiling beam, the Babylon has managed to retain something of its former glamour, thanks to the legions of fans who have kept it open and helped pay for its restoration – a kind of devotion that, again, is hard to find outside of the movies. GG

Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30, 10178; U Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz; www.babylonberlin.de

Map: North F4