This collection of used cinema tickets, dating from 1970s and 1980s reminded me on weekly ritual (mostly weekends) when as a kid I visited local cinema theatre in my hometown Zagreb. The kids today probably have no idea what a threat it was to indulge yourself in something so thrilling and instantly rewarding. Today we have Internet, absolutely everything is immediately available, downloadable and instantly forgettable, not to mention the huge cinema chains that offer bunch of screening under one roof. But what about small local neighbour places, like the ones from my childhood?
When I was growing up during 1970s and 1980s, our neighbourhood was lively and lovely - little shops everywhere, nothing fancy but perfectly functional, pharmacy, vegetables, butcher, supermarket, news agent, shoe maker, photographer.... everybody there knew each other and often they would chat with customers, I don't remember money ever being an issue. You don't have enough now, you pay the rest next time. My school was just around the corner and I would often leave the house only when I heard the bell announcing start of the class. Our local little cinema was called "Kino Studio" and here is where I was usually sent away on Sunday afternoons (wonder why) to immerse myself in a something far more exciting than what our crummy old black-and-white TV offered. At that time we had only two TV channels, no remote control and I don't remember ever being specially picky about what we watched - documentaries, sport, old movie classics and family shows. But cinema was another thing - here you got completely lost in adventures of Superman, Star Wars and Indiana Jones, everything was huge, spectacular and in colour. The very first movie I saw was something about "Zeppelin" (probably disaster spectacle) followed by "The Island of Dr.Moreau" with Burt Lancaster that scared me to death. Lots of Bruce Lee, detective thrillers and trains crashing.
Other cinemas around were "Partizan" (much bigger) and "Mosor" where we went only if they showed something more interesting. Since my family was working class, they ignored art movies presented as a part of new screenings from Berlin Festival so I grew up in the dark about Ingmar Bergman and such directors, those I had to discover later by myself. My childhood days were therefore influenced by adventure movies, comedies and actors like Steve Mc Queen, Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. No musicals whatsoever until "Grease" thrilled me to death and I watched in three days in a row, excited with high school story. Much further in the centre of town were big, classy cinemas like "Zagreb" and "Balkan" where the biggest hits were screened, "Tuškanac" that was situated in a park and had younger audience and there was also "Kosmaj" cinema where soldiers crowded because of screening of Kung Fu movies combined with soft porn. As I started growing into a shy teenager, I was dying to see soft porn but could not bring myself to be seen there and when I finally got a courage to nonchalantly (and red faced) enter that cinema, by some mistake I found myself watching Bruce Lee.
What is this all little story about is my reminiscence about local cinema houses spread strategically around the town. About the guys re-selling tickets for biggest hits, about the popcorn that was sold outside in the street but forbidden to bring in the cinema theatre (and everybody had it hidden under the jacket), about the whole adventure of taking a tram to another part of town just to see the movie and than excitedly discussing it with friends on the way back. Most of what thrilled me than would probably bore me to death now. During my first visit to London I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the glamour on Leicester Square and immediately phoned home to inform about popcorn and soft drinks being sold in the cinema - "they even have a place on the chair for the drinks!" I yelled to my unbelieving friends.
Things had changed a lot since. Local little cinema houses had almost completely disappeared in Zagreb (they are still there but empty), new monstrous cinema chains replaced them and we are now closer to a western trends that bundles everything under one roof. On several of those new screenings I couldn't bare the loudness of the sound and to be honest, even audiences themselves. Amsterdam still cherish the tradition of local cinemas and I love them dearly, though unfortunately my favourite Filmmuseum had moved far away from a beautiful park and into some ultra modern building that does not appeal to me. More than ever before, the whole cinematic experience turns into a private pleasure at home in front of own screen - comfortable perhaps but distant from how we first learnt about it. Maybe the childhood simply can't be lived again.
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