Friday, January 22, 2010

Lower East Side/East Village Theater Tidbit

This is an image of what was called "The Invisible Cinema" that lived in part of The Public Theater from 1970 to 1974. The filmmaker, Peter Kubelka, designed the theater with blinders on either side of each chair so as to focus your gaze entirely on the film that is being viewed.
The cinema was built for Anthology Film Archives and was made to promote their philosophy of enhancing (or prioritizing) the visual experience of film.
Kubelka said the following about the room:
The cinema built for Anthology Film Archives was comparatively small in size, seating less than one hundred people. Ceiling, walls, seats were all covered with black velvet, the floor was covered with black carpeting, doors and everything else were painted black. In the whole room, only the screen itself was not completely black. Consequently, the screen and film projected on the screen were the only visual points of reference. In a cinema, one shouldn’t be aware of the architectural space so that the film can completely dictate the sensation of space.
A friend of mine sent me the post made by the blog We Are Independently Wealthy that wrote about the Invisible Cinema which was such a serendipitous moment. I thought that this would be some fun fact information that could be enjoyed by all. If possible I would jump at the chance of watching all my movies like this. Of course, it does make movie-watching hand holding difficult.

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