Central House of Cinema (''CDK'') is a

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, established in 1934 and currently managed by the

Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation The Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation ( ru , Союз кинематографистов России) is the trade union of cinematographers, actors, and other professionals of Russian cinema. Founded in 1991, it was preceded b ...

. CDK is a venue for film premieres, as well as open talks, artistic encounters, conferences, etc.

History

Construction

In 1908, an Alexeevsky people’s house was opened on the site of the modern CDK. It was intended as a cultural complex for the workers, sponsored and managed by the Moscow Temperance Society. Muscovites and their family members went there to watch theater shows, open readings, art and physical classes. After the

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

, the building was given to the Soviet administration for offices. In the early 1930s,

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenw ...

put forward the idea to establish a cinema house in Moscow. The old building was reconstructed and reopened in 1934, its seating capacity exceeded 700. Soon, a plan to construct additional floors was proposed, so CDK had to relocate. It changed several other locations in Moscow, until a final return in 1968. By then, a new building was constructed right next to the old one. It was designed by in the then fashionable

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

style. A massive stained glass panel by

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

was donated by the artist's widow Nadia Khodasevich to the new venue. In the 1970s, CDK was one of the most important cultural venues in the USSR, open only to members of the Cinematographers Union or visitors with special invitations.

XXI century

In 2016, CDK became public. Since then, the tickets went on sale, the venue started hosting open talks and master classes for wide audiences, as well as music concerts and shows.

Reconstruction

in August 2022, the Union of Cinematographers announced the plan to reconstruct CDK. According to the project, the reconstructed complex will include an apartment building of 29250 square meters, while the cinema hall will be of only 4500 square meters.

References

{{coord missing, Russia Buildings and structures in Moscow Cinemas and movie theaters