The latest art cinemas swim upstream

Traveling is mind-opening. So is watching good movies. The pandemic has hit the travel and tourism industry hard. Entertainment has suffered no less.

Last Friday I was strolling along the edge of Madrid's Glorieta de Quevedo. My steps led me to the panel advertising a movie program that proposed several Italian cult films in a movie theater hidden in that corner: Peque?o Cine Estudio. It was the first mini-cinema in Spain, back in the late 70's, when these theaters were called art cinemas, and projected underground or cult films, in original version with Spanish subtitles. These films from the four corners of the planet attracted a select audience of fans and connoisseurs of obscure films. Many of these movies represented real discoveries as they were difficult to distribute in the commercial circuits. 

The current crisis has led to the closure of many cinemas: in January only 38 percent of cinemas remained open in Spain, according to Comscore. Some of the survivors are reducing their ticket prices to attract more people to the silver screen. But pay TV program packages are adding to the free content on the Internet, creating a huge competitor to traditional movie theaters. Peque?o Cine Estudio (at Magallanes, 1 in case you're wondering where it's located) is a pioneer in bringing pieces of the true Seventh Art to an audience eager to broaden their life perspectives. This movie theater has 105 seats to fill, but last Friday they only had one customer. Just one person was interested in the film that was playing: a Federico Fellini classic presented on the big screen.

At the moment, companies or families who reserve this space for private events, parties or birthdays, are the only hope left for the owners of this type of theaters to get some oxygen to keep breathing. Peque?o Cine Estudio does not receive any subsidy from the cultural authorities, but it holds the line. They continue to offer the classic gems of the Dream Factory to an incredibly shrinking audience. As I left the place, I couldn't help but think of an old Hollywood blockbuster from the 1940s, "They Died With Their Boots On."