Deutsch
English
Background information
"Cologne was a cinema city, almost every district ('Veedel') had its own movie theater. The picture and text volume 'Kino in Köln. Von Wanderkinos, Lichtspieltheatern und Filmpalästen' (Cinema in Cologne. Of traveling cinemas, movie theaters and movie palaces) invites us to an exciting 'cinema walk' through the cathedral city. It tells the story of the first cinema, leads to boarding houses, film palaces and box cinemas and shows the way to arthouse and multiplex cinemas. Projectionists tell of film rupture and carbon arc lamps, theater managers tell of stars and premieres, as well as the great crisis and boom of mainstream cinema." (© Emons Verlag, 2016)
Content
The picture and text volume 'Kino in Köln. Von Wanderkinos, Lichtspieltheatern und Filmpalästen' by Marion Kranen and Irene Schoor (editors) contains many black-and-white photographs in chronological order, some of which are photographs by the renowned Cologne photographer Karl-Hugo SCHMÖLZ. Of particular interest are the photographs from the 1930s to the 1950s, as well as from the more recent past, the 1970s and 80s.
Book review
The book 'Kino in Köln. Von Wanderkinos, Lichtspieltheatern und Filmpalästen' by the authors Marion Kranen & Irene Schoor is a successful mix of illustrated book and exciting stories. It tells of the splendor of Cologne's great movie theaters, of the very first screening in 1896 at Augustinerplatz, the traveling cinemas and movie palaces, with wonderful historical pictures and much attention to detail.
Cologne's cinema history officially begins on April 20, 1896, in a room at Augustinerplatz 12. The first viewers were able to admire no less than twelve films with a running time of just 50 seconds. And because there was not yet a proper word for the new technology, they were simply called 'living photography'. The first legendary films called 'La Mer', 'Le Train' or 'La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière' were made by pioneers of film technology: the Lumière brothers from France.
Pictures of the first venue, as well as a drawing of the projector used at the time, bring this story to life. (...) The cinematic journey through time leads chronologically through history, tells of movie palaces and golden times as well as of the decline, of the Nazi era and of the first multiplex cinema in Cologne.
'Kino in Köln. Von Wanderkinos, Lichtspieltheatern und Filmpalästen' is a great book for cineastes, Cologne residents, Imis, and anyone who simply wants to take a historical reading stroll and explore the cathedral city, its cinemas, great films, and little stories, while perhaps revisiting one or two of their own memories." (© sb, in: kölnreporter, 2016)