Last exhibition of “Lietuva”

Today I went to a one-day exposition called “The beginning of meeting”. It took place in closed cinema theatre “Lietuva” (Lithuania) that will be demolished this year. Modern art centre will be built and opened in 2018 in place of the cinema. In such case, the creators of modern art centre invite citizens to say goodbye to the old cinema and meet concept of new centre by organizing this one-day exposition.

I would say that the topic of this exposition was very well chosen. Visitors had a chance to go through all the building. As a cinema visitor I was able to see only cinema halls. During this excursion we went through cinema halls, room of cameraman, all spaces of the building that were closed for eye of cinema visitor. The main film hall was so shockingly empty, but modern creators incorporated contemporary art creations to fulfill this emptiness. In such case we could face a downfall of the cinema and rise of modern art creations at once.

Main cinema hall. It’s so shocking to see it without chairs…

During the excursion, some facts from history of the cinema were told. The cinema was opened in 1965 after long lasting construction. It was once of the biggest cinemas in Vilnius. The main cinema hall has almost a thousand seats (983 to be exact), the last rows (15-16) were always reserved for important people from communist party in case they would like to show up anytime. The cinema was reconstructed in 1997 – new, modern audio and video systems were installed and a small hall was built. It is interesting that this new hall was called “Hall 88” (according to the number of seats it had) and less popular films were shown there. It was built after deconstruction of old ventilation system that had water pools to clean air in the cinema.

One of the art pieces representing Latin swear words

On the way to Hall 88. Names of directors, their films that had been shown in the cinema were written on the wall

The guide also mentioned some films that were shown in this cinema. The first shown film was The Blizzard (1964) based on the story by Alexander Pushkin (famous Russian writer). One of the most popular films in the cinema was Spartacus (1960) by Stanley Kubrick. It was played for 2.5 months. The cinema was closed in 2005 and the goodbye films were Idiots (1998) by Lars von Trier and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).

I believe that selection of these goodbye films was not accidental. Many protest strikes were organized to keep the cinema alive, to work, to keep the history and culture growing. Many people were disappointed when the building got privatized. In my eyes, the selection of goodbye films was silent resistance and position towards the closure of the cinema.

Personally, it is difficult to understand that a cinema with such strong, stating name, built in the heart of old town Vilnius could be demolished to give space for modern architecture art centre building. It brings me memories each time I pass it. I recall one visit to this cinema when I was in primary school. My all class together with our teacher went to see a premiere of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002). There were some extremely sad parts of the film that all classmates started to cry. This common weeping strengthened the atmosphere of the class and this is one of the strongest emotions I remember from my primary school primary. I believe that many people of Vilnius cannot imagine the city without this cinema and it will take time to let sentiments settle down.

The cinema during soviet times

 

Cinema building on these days