Cine Cosmos is a restored
cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
on
Avenida Corrientes
Avenida Corrientes () is one of the principal thoroughfares of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. The street is intimately tied to the tango and the porteño sense of identity. Like the parallel avenues Santa Fe, Córdoba, and San Juan, it ...
in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Argentina. Originally inaugurated as Cine Cataluña in 1929, it became known under its current name in the 1960s for its showings of alternative
Soviet cinema
The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. M ...
. Since 2010 it has been owned and operated by the
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...
, Argentina's largest university.
History
The building that now houses Cine Cosmos was originally designed by Belgian architect Albert Bourdon for the ''Cine-Teatro Cataluña''. The
Art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
building was built by engineer Jacques América and his construction company, and was first owned by Mrs. Fabrus and Mrs. Montardit. In 1955, it was bought by businessman Argentino Vainikoff, owner of the
Soviet cinema
The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. M ...
distribution company Artkino Pictures, which had been founded in 1937.
Between 1947 and 1951, Soviet films had been banned in Argentina by decree of
Raúl Apold, press chief of President
Juan Domingo Perón
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...
. The censorship ended in 1951 due to lobbying efforts by Vainikoff and presidential secretary Martín Carlos Martínez, who convinced Perón to overturn the ban.
![Cine Cataluña (Cosmos) 1929](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Cine_Catalu%C3%B1a_%28Cosmos%29_1929.JPG)
On 30 August 1966, the cinema was reopened under the name of Cine Cosmos 70 (a reference to
70 mm film
70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is wid ...
). The first projection was a showing of the French film
Dominique, by
Yvan Noé
Yvan Noé (1895–1963) was a French playwright, screenwriter and film director.Driskell p.146 He was married to the actress Pierrette Caillol who sometimes performed alongside him.
Selected filmography
* '' Gloria'' (1931)
* '' Mademoiselle Mozar ...
. The first successful showing, however, was of the Czechoslovakian film
The Shop on Main Street
''The Shop on Main Street'' ( Czech/ Slovak: ''Obchod na korze''; in the UK ''The Shop on the High Street'') is a 1965 Czechoslovakian film about the Aryanization program during World War II in the Slovak State.
The film was written by Ladislav G ...
, by
Ján Kadár
Ján Kadár (1 April 1918 – 1 June 1979) was a Hungarian-born Slovak film writer and director of Jewish heritage.
As a filmmaker, he worked in Czechoslovakia, the United States, and Canada. Most of his films were directed in tandem with Elm ...
and
Elmar Klos
Elmar Klos (26 January 1910 – 19 July 1993) was a Czech film director who collaborated for 17 years with his Slovak colleague Ján Kadár and with him won the 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of award ...
—the film was featured for twenty-three consecutive weeks.
The cinema continued to feature Eastern European films, such as ''
The Cranes Are Flying'', ''
Closely Watched Trains
''Closely Watched Trains'' ( cs, Ostře sledované vlaky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel and is one of the best-known products of the Czechoslovak New Wave. It was released in the United Kingdom as ''Closely Observed Trains ...
'', ''
Loves of a Blonde
''Loves of a Blonde'' ( cs, Lásky jedné plavovlásky), also known as ''A Blonde in Love'', is a 1965 Czechoslovak comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman that follows a young woman, Andula, who has a routine job in a shoe factory in provin ...
'', ''
Lemonade Joe
''Lemonade Joe, or the Horse Opera'' ( cs, Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera) is a 1964 Czechoslovak musical comedy film, directed by Oldřich Lipský and written by Jiří Brdečka, based on his novel and stage play.
A parody of the American ...
'', and ''
The Cold Summer of 1953''. Soviet classics such as ''
War and Peace
''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
'' and ''
Battleship Potemkin
'' Battleship Potemkin'' (russian: Бронено́сец «Потёмкин», ''Bronenosets Potyomkin''), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent
drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by S ...
'' were also featured during special cycles. The cinema's preference for films from Eastern Europe during the Cold War led to the Argentine government to associate it with the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, an allegation Vainikoff denied throughout his life.
Cine Cosmos closed for the first time toward the end of 1987. The premises were occupied by a nightclub by the name of "Halley" until 26 November 1997, when the cinema reopened at the hands of an 87-year old Vainikoff.
[ Following Vainikoff's death in 2003, his children Luis and Alba took on the cinema, until they were forced to sell the place in 2006. Proposals for the building to become a hotel were never materialized.][
In December 2009, ]University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...
rector Rubén Hallú announced the university would purchase the cinema by $2.5 million USD. Cine Cosmos stands next to the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas
The Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas (CCRR, "Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center") is a cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is owned and operated by the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), the country's largest university. It is named after journa ...
, a cultural center owned and run by the university. The following year, in November 2010, the cinema finally re-opened as ''Cine Cosmos UBA''.
The Cine Cosmos UBA has served as one of the venues for the independent film festival BAFICI
The Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI, es, Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of ...
in 2011, 2012 and 2022.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1929 establishments in Argentina
Art Deco architecture in Argentina
Buildings and structures in Buenos Aires
Cinemas in Argentina
University of Buenos Aires