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The Death of the Movie Palace

From: milano, italy to Florence, Italy

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The Cinema Caffè Gambrinus has been closed for months, but no one can tell precisely how many. The Palace still stands, remembering its past and something majestic through the signs of its bar and its pastry shop, that now don’t exist anymore.
Forgotten by the youngest, who prefer the modern multi-screen cinemas, forgotten by those Florentines who well remember that two other important cinemas were once on Via Brunelleschi, besides the Gambrinus.
In front of its closed door there are now a couple of guys who play the circus game.
No event has opened its doors. No association nor important names have usurped its signs or spaces. Everyone complains about the officials abandoning it, about their non-existing interest about this structure, but the citizens don’t use it neither anyway. Close to the Dome of Florence, the Gambrinus is there, abandoned like a piece of paper, surrounded by trash, young squatters and tourists who have definitely lost their way.

Original Briefing

When an era dies, should its architecture die with it?

Ever since the very first sparkles of a moving image shone upon a whitish screen, Gambrinus was there. Sort of. It's not clear how many Gambrinus cinemas there are in Tuscany, but one of these dates back to 1906. The most famous of these historical cinemas, open in the Florence city center since the dawn of movies, has been able to keep up with the advent of talkies and managed to survive cinemascope, but was finally done in by insufficient funding and by a decreasing reputation of the nearby area, very scarce in transportation services. Gambrinus has been on the edge of being shut down several times, and right now, although still considered a landmark and bound to the city's cinematic heritage– sometimes hosting commercial, fashion related events - the cinehall's future is pretty blurry. The Florence historical center has been debated about because of its so-called “degradation”, due to immigration and lack of legal regulations. Right wing fringe Azione Giovane organized marches and the Alter Ciak cinema shut down, because its customers were allegedly starting to get scared of walking around the area. As for the Gambrinus, located in the more peaceful – but car inaccessible - Piazza della Repubblica, at the moment we can only be sure the Lee Rocks concert, organized by Vice Magazine guys to celebrate the denim brand, is going to take place there with a hipster audience coming to hear the Teenagers and the Tunas. We're less interested in the event, which simply looks like another commercial wankfest masquerading as authenticity, but we're interested in how people are using the building to maybe inject new life in it, and keep it from being torn down.

Gallery

The Gambrinus movie theater in Florence has been on the edge of being shut down several times, and right now, although still considered a city's heritage and bound to its film-related status, the cinehall's future is pretty blurry. At the moment we can only be sure the Lee Rocks concert, is going to take place there.

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