AN old light flickers to reveal the grand, dilapidated beauty of what was once Hawthorn’s Glenferrie Cinema. Almost 100 years after its demise, owner Eddie Tamir is in the midst of leading a careful restoration before re-opening it to the public in 2012. “People don’t even realise it was a cinema,” he says, eyes widening with the excitement of a child digging into a bucket of popcorn.
This is Tamir’s third cinema project after opening the single-screen Classic in Elsternwick in 1997, followed by refurbishing the Cameo in Belgrave in 2004. Some might find it a curious business venture in a time when video stores are closing down, DVD vending machines are popping up on every corner and people are downloading movies direct to their iPads. Yet this is hardly the first time the death knell has been rung, with television, VCRs and DVD players all prompting speculation that the days of the cinema were over.
Cinemas have not only survived every technological bullet; they have thrived. Take the recent Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn release – in its opening weekend, the vampire flick took more than $12.2 million in Australia alone.
Tamir, a former filmmaker, says he entered the cinema business as a way to escape the transience of creative life. He admits that in hindsight this was, perhaps, “a bit gutless, because creative life is fun”.
By chance, he received a pamphlet from the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society listing every venue that had ever operated in Victoria. It also listed their current operational status, and the climate of recent decades was telling – many historic cinemas had been closed, demolished, or become apartments.
Tamir fell in love with the idea of restoring these pieces of history. “I went to every site,” he admits, and says there are still many more that he’d like to revive.
Palace Cinemas executive director Benjamin Zeccola says changing technologies don’t worry him. ‘‘An iPad is competition but it also promotes movies,’’ he says, insisting that cheap downloads offer something entirely different. ‘‘Taking your partner to the couch to watch a DVD on a Saturday night isn’t as special as taking them to the cinema.’’
Zeccola says that if Palace can’t deliver the optimal cinema experience, then they won’t do it at all. For this reason the company closed St Kilda’s George cinema in 2010. The plan was to renovate the premises and increase the number of screens, but a renewed lease agreement with the landlord could not be reached and the credits rolled for the last time.
Zeccola says his focus is on quality, not quantity. ‘‘We see more arthouse films released in Melbourne than in the UK,’’ he explains. He also credits the 75-year-old Astor Theatre as one of Melbourne cinema’s great success stories – with its eclectic offerings, the much-loved theatre has survived the threat of the megaplex and is something of an icon for film buffs.
Part of the appeal of going to a cinema is simple: “Cinemas will survive because people want to get out of their houses,” Tamir says.
And of course they offer a sense of escapism that just doesn’t happen when you’re watching a film at home. “You have your private experience because you’re in the dark, but you have this collective around you,” Tamir says. “People love to share experiences.”
The statistics agree. According to Screen Australia, the number of cinema screens grew by an incredible 140 per cent between 1980 and 2010. Michael Hawkins, the executive director of the National Association of Cinema Operators, says the numbers reflect the rise of chain cinemas. ‘‘Shopping centres were very keen to have cinemas as part of their tenant mix,’’ he explains.
The industry dropped off in 2007, but picked up again in 2008 and has grown steadily ever since. In 2010 there were 1994 cinema screens across the country – 533 of them in Victoria.
The bums on seats justify the number of screens. The Australian Bureau of Statistics says in 2009–10, the most popular cultural event attended by people aged 15 years and older was the cinema, and 11.7 million Australians attended during that period.
And it’s not just indoors that films have been thriving. Simon Bogle, event director for Moonlight Cinema, says his cinema’s ceiling is the sky and the walls a garden – fair enough, considering he screens films in the Royal Botanic Gardens. He agrees it’s the social experience that keeps the magic of cinema alive. The winning Moonlight formula has barely changed since it launched in the summer of 1995–96.
Nationally, Moonlight attracts between 200,000 and 250,000 movie buffs each season, Bogle says, with 25–30 per cent of those attendees in Melbourne.
This year, the outdoor cinema is due for a shake-up. “There’ll be previews and premieres in the mix this summer,” he hints, knowing he has steady competition from the likes of Rooftop Cinema, the St Kilda Open Air cinema, and the new silent cinema under the atrium at Southgate, where patrons snuggle into deck chairs and listens to the films through personal speakers.
Bogle says he’s never considered cheap downloads or DVD vending machines as a threat. “If you want to watch movies at home there are ways of getting them, but people like seeing films on big screens,” he argues.
But if it was that simple then Tamir wouldn’t have so many abandoned cinemas to choose from. He says the future relies on accepting technology. The Cameo and the Classic were among the first completely digital cinemas in Melbourne, but he laments: “The images are beautiful and not scratched which is a bit less romantic for me.”
Modern technology isn’t all bad, though. He acknowledges that the 3D release of Avatar in 2009 invigorated audiences once again. ‘‘[It] had the most poetic imagery that I’ve ever seen. When a filmmaker does that, people are happy to pay extra and have the glasses on their head.’’ He adds that 3D technology makes piracy near impossible.
He knows that while some things must change, others don’t change at all. People still stand in the freezing cold at the MCG when they could watch a game on TV and they’ll risk being crushed in a crowd at a concert when they could just listen to the album on their iPod. The same applies to cinema.
“Hopefully the reason for all of that thriving is due to the fundamental human need to socialise frequently.’’
Email a friend