Empty theaters full arenas, the boom of summer cinema - Lifestyle

 Empty theaters, sold out summer cinema arenas.

Recipes are being sought to tackle the crisis of cinema, bulimic in production in the face of theaters that, on the contrary, which in the rest of Europe have no longer filled up after Covid.

At the center is the recovery of the relationship with the public, in many cases to be literally recaptured before losing it definitively following the convenience of streaming but a phenomenon has literally exploded this summer, in Rome above all but not only: that of cinema all ' open.

    Summer arenas, in vacation spots, are a classic also in Italy but above all of the past, the novelty that has made its way in recent years concerns the city arenas, financed in part with the money of local or regional administrations.

But making them does not mean filling them.

    In the hot summer of 2022, watching cinema, restored from the past, almost new or even brand new last season, in outdoor armchairs, on deck chairs or sitting cross-legged on the lawn seems to have become a way to return to be fascinated by language powerful of the seventh art in a different way, rediscovering that sociability, that sharing that we have always referred to the cinema in the hall.

In Rome alone there are over 40, many new such as Scena - Cinema along the Tiber which hosted by Garrone in Virzì or Il cinema at the Parco degli Acquedotti.

Driving the arenas and the incredible participation of this season is also another factor: often the screenings are accompanied by debates, presentations by directors or actors and this too 'yes the debate yes'

marks the difference and makes the public fall in love again and consolidate the impression that in crisis it is certainly not the relationship between the public and the cinema, its fascinating, complex, always different language but rather the way in which it is viewed.

And the renewal of the cinemas, an afterthought, seems more essential than ever, looking at September when the new films available will finally arrive: more welcoming, more modern, perhaps with policies that bring families closer to prices (the Uci Cinemas circuit has raised up 14 years the threshold for the price range).

    Observes Domenico Dinoia, president of the Italian Federation of Arthouse Cinema: "arenas are welcome, it is a way to keep the thread with the public given the persistent erroneous belief in the danger of indoor cinema. The arena - he tells ANSA - is attractiveness precisely for that target that has stopped going to theaters, it also makes it possible to recover the films of this season: films like Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore for example, or Belfast by Kenneth Branagh are sold out throughout Italy. very well in the arenas and goes to fill a void. Of course, look, let's hope a real rapprochement starts from the arenas ".

    There is talk of 300 arenas, with Rome caput with over 40, then Bologna (the projections in Piazza Maggiore have become an absolute cult, with a call from a rock concert, they come to us from all over Italy: Under the stars of the cinema - The rediscovered cinema, of the Cineteca di Bologna, lights up 50 summer nights and brings together The Beatles Get Back and Antonioni's Eclipse), Florence, Milan.

    "The summer evenings in the arenas - Massimo Arcangeli of Anec Lazio comments to ANSA - testify to a profound need that must be collected and accompanied. The arenas give a signal of reassurance they tell us that there is a way out of the social isolation experienced. , for this reason, thinking about the post-summer season, the role of the hall must be protected, if the cities close they are brutalized, and this is also a political issue, it is necessary to safeguard its function on the territory and certainly change. How? cinema is medicine, regulating the windows, acting on the price lever which in the autumn will be decisive for the high cost of living we are already experiencing ".

    While waiting for other arenas to arrive, such as the Floating Theater Summer Fest, (from 18 August to 25 September the floating arena at the Laghetto dell'Eur in Rome), this summer the pioneering arena of the theme closes with the screens on, which has established over time a formidable relationship with the younger audience and which has had an all-star programming from Wes Anderson to Fanny Ardant and Carlo Verdone or the Cinema in Piazza, the event organized in Rome by the Piccolo America Association, two months of programming between Piazza San Cosimato, the Cervelletta Park and Monte Ciocci.

"90 thousand spectators" proud president Valerio Carocci rejoices.

Federico Croce, General Manager, says: "we notice every year that it is precisely the boys who crowd our squares,

because they experience them as a place of beauty where they can meet and watch films all together, getting out of the claustrophobia of streaming and the four walls of the house.

And we are happy to see how this year the summer arenas have multiplied within the city, because this is the demonstration that what we believed in is something that citizens appreciate and clamor for ". (ANSA).