We inaugurated the Thematic Rolé Carioca presenting the old downtown theaters! Most of the buildings in this tour no longer operates as their original function as an exhibition hall. However, this set of buildings represents the memory of the beginnings of the "Seventh Art" in the city. Not by chance, on the way between Tiradentes Square and Cinelândia, there were dozens of cinemas until the middle of the twentieth century!
At the turn of the twentieth century, downtown Rio was a stronghold of urban novelties, most of them brought from France and the USA. Naturally, it was here that the first cinema session took place in the country, in 1896. The first permanent room, destined, although not exclusively, to the cinema was inaugurated in 1897, in Rua do Ouvidor, an enterprise linked to the Italian Paschoal Segreto. Alongside automatic dolls, slot machines, numerous varieties and scientific entertainment gadgets, the Paris Novelty Room in Rio also featured a Lumière Cinematograph. Public interest in the exhibitions led Segreto to invest in the production of films - which at that time were scenes shot without sequence, actors or previous script.
Regular distribution of electricity in the city was essential for the establishment of these leisure spaces. Since 1907, more than 20 cinematographers were installed in the area of the newly opened Central Avenue (present-day Rio Branco). Around the 1920s and 1930s, the region became a cinematic redoubt thanks largely to the Spanish Francisco Serrador, who saw a 'city of cinemas' as a cultural attraction, surrounded by the sophisticated buildings of the Municipal Theater and the National School of Fine Arts. Two Rio companies, Cinédia (1930) and Atlântida (1941) studios, consolidated the national production and developed a film genre capable of attracting more viewers: the chanchada. Since then, theaters have gone through many transitions, but remain a rich panorama for understanding Rio's public space.
Image: Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro/Divulgação
Inaugurated in 1872, originally as the Franco Brazilian Casino Theater, it was later called the Santana Theater until it was acquired by businessman Paschoal Segreto in 1904, when it was named after the composer. Paschoal gave the place a new meaning by setting up a bar that featured Brahma's popular tables and chairs, as well as a small amusement park in a courtyard. The building suffered a major fire in 1929 and was rebuilt in an Art Deco style, with apartments over the theater, now converted into business rooms. The house came to be used as a cinema in the 1950s and 1960s and was almost demolished for the construction of a hotel. In 1988, purchased by the City of Rio, the theater was restored and delivered to the public in 1992.
Image credit: Facebook Teatro Municipal Carlos Gomes
From 1909, Cinematographo Ideal rivaled Cine Íris, on the same street. According to registers from the time, the Ideal passed the films of Pathé, and the Irises those of Universal. At the time of the screening of the films, Rua da Carioca was impassable due to the number of people who crowded in front of the cinemas. In 1913, a renovation enlarged the projection room, introducing a novelty at the time: a dome signed by Gustave Eiffel opened during sessions to renew the air and refresh the environment. In 1926 it joined Luiz Severiano Ribeiro's cinema network. In the 1990s, after a big fire, the houses that formed the room were sold.
Image credit: Thiago Diniz/Rolé Carioca
One of the oldest operating theaters in Rio, to this day remains under the founder's family direction. When inaugurated in 1909 by businessman João Cruz Júnior, it was called Cinema Sovereign. In 1914, it was transformed into Theatro Victoria. In the 1920s, it expanded its capacity with the use of iron structures, to include 1,200 spectators. On the terrace was installed the skylight, common element as a way to ventilate the environment, and adopted the name Cine-Theatro Iris in reference to the Greek goddess. Shortly after the building was toppled in the 1980s, it began to feature erotic movies with strip shows, and since then the audience has been mostly male.
Image credit: Thiago Diniz/Rolé Carioca
From the same creator of Cine Teatro Rex, comes a decade after the consolidation of Cinelândia in the field of cinema, in 1935, as Cine Teatro Rio. It occupies the same gallery where today we have the Dulcina Theater, also inaugurated in 1935, with the name of Teatro Regina, in an art deco building that can still be admired. It went through several transitions until the name Orly was established: Cine Ok, Cine São Carlos, Cine Rivoli. It was run by Cia. Nacional Cinefilmes between the 50's and 60's, later replaced by Esplendor Filmes S. A. In his later years, he was dedicated to the screening of pornographic films aimed at gay men.
Image credit: Caroline Valansi/Reprodução
It is located on the ground floor of the Rex Building, which comprises the Rival Theater underground, inaugurated months after the cine theater in 1934. The combination of cinema, theater and building was a strategy of the project's creator, Vivaldi Leite Ribeiro, influenced by Serrador, who had also invested in mixed-use buildings, seeking investments parallel to leisure establishments. In 1937, the cinema had 1,900 seats and, in 1969, 1,607 seats. It survives in activity in Cinelandia with the screening of pornographic films.
Image credit: Thiago Diniz/Rolé Carioca
Located in the Rivoli Building, an art deco style model, it made up the landscape of the surroundings of Piazza Floriano when it opened in 1942. Like most cinemas in the area, it was built under a building that could be occupied by commercial activities and / or apartments. It belonged to the Severiano Ribeiro Group and exhibited pornographic films in its last years, until finally closing doors in 1993. It was abandoned until 2012, when a major renovation installed the Livraria Cultura there. The restoration preserved original elements of the cinema, such as the black and white floor, the balcony, the box office, the façade and the marble and granite coverings, as well as this beautiful bronze panel. It is currently out of service after the bookstore closure.
Image credit: Thiago Diniz/Rolé Carioca
The first art deco cinema in Rio de Janeiro from it’s time in the 1920s. It was reportedly the smallest cinema in Cinelândia carioca, with 918 seats until 1937. Designed by architect Ricardo Wriedt and built by the family of photographer Marc Ferrez, who participated in the cinema introduction in Brazil. It derives from the Pathé Cinematographo, then opened on Central Avenue in 1907. After the photographer's death, Casa Marc Ferrez opened Pathé Palace in the middle of Floriano Square in 1928. Now, like other old cinemas through the city, it houses an evangelical church.
Image credit: Thiago Diniz/Rolé Carioca
Last active cinema in the Cinelandia region, next to Cine Rex. It operates on the first floors of an eleven-storey building with mixed use since 1926, but its origin dates back to the early twentieth century. The pianist Ernesto Nazareth performed in the house from 1909 to 1918, and in 1910 composed the famous choro "Odeon", in reference to the cinema. In 1999, after a closed period, it was reopened by Grupo Estação. In 2015, it underwent a new overhaul and became the Odeon Severiano Ribeiro Cultural Center, with diversified programming. It alternates film screening with exhibitions, musical events, courses, shows, lectures and various events related to culture.
Image credit: Thiago Diniz/Rolé Carioca
Dark movie theaters were often not seen as a familiar environment. Attempts have been made to promote projections with the lights on. It was an environment that would facilitate the presence of opportunists acting under the protection of anonymity. The figure of the "masher" was associated with the harassment suffered by women during the exhibitions. As well as the "friends of others", referring to possible thefts. In this context “usher” emerge, as watchmen of morals and security issues.
“Eating / Hot dogs at the bar / Certainly the fashion will catch on / Because it is not vulgar ... / Eating / Everyone goes to the" block "/ Because there is sausage in abundance / To eat with bread ... / What good licking ... / biting ... eating ... /A tempting puppy / In the "Serrador Block"
Businessman Francisco Serrador became known after investing in the construction of a 1920s New York Broadway-inspired Cinelândia theater complex, including Capitólio, Gloria, Império and Odeon. But few know that he also introduced the habit of eating hot dogs, then a novelty made with parsley or sausage that Americans consumed at the doors of cinemas and theaters. The delicacy was so successful that it inspired Lamartine Babo and Ary Barroso to compose the Carnival march “Hot Dog” in 1928.
Eating popcorn was not always part of the movie experience. Until the late 1920s, the snack was not welcomed by the exhibitors, who wanted to maintain the luxurious ambience of the rooms without the interference of the noise of food and dirt on the carpets and armchairs. The advent of film sound and the recession of 1929 popularized cinema, turning the popcorn business into an opportunity for theaters. Movie theaters have incorporated the delicacy sold at low prices to survive as a source of cheap entertainment. Formerly restricted to entrances, street vendors began selling inside the halls until they were replaced by bombonieres.
This heritage and conservation center for audiovisual memory is the second oldest active cinematheque in the country. Its 180-seat screening room and chairs by designer Sérgio Rodrigues is one of the few exhibiting films in Rio today. The programming, always free of charge, presents rarities of cinema amid courses, commented sessions and thematic shows. Part of its audiovisual archive, one of the most relevant in Latin America, is open for consultation: there are over 7,000 titles in 35mm and 16mm, and about 60,000 in VHS, digital and optical media, complemented by largest documentary film collection in the country, with about two and a half million photographic items, posters and images.
Infante Dom Henrique Avenue, 85 - Flamengo Park
Phone: (21) 3883-5631
See the schedule: https://www.mam.rio/cinemateca-programacao/
