De Uitkijk In Amsterdam About To Close
posted by
Roloff
on
July 14, 2004 at 6:59 am
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS — The first and oldest art house theater in The Netherlands, “De Uitkijk”, is about to close. The tiny theater on the Prinsengracht 452 has been running since 1929, but now faces a final shut-down after a couple of years of loss.
Currently there aren’t any cinema chains or owners looking into saving the site, nor does the local government seem to care. The Filmmuseum has shown interest (since it’s roots lie in the theater), but have no money at all. The current owner is still looking for financial aid to keep the theater open.
Comments (2)
This news was somewhat older, I just found out it has been saved for the coming few years! The current programmer, Maatschappij voor de Cinegrafie NV, a company that books and programs for many art houses, will be the new owner. The organisation stays the same, and the manager/projectionist/ticket inspector that has been working at De Uitkijk for 27 years, will still be running the shows.
To cover the losses they will start a “Friends of De Uitkijk” system and hope to raise extra income through donations. For these friends they will organise special activities. The first event will possibly be in November, when the art house has it’s 75th birthday.
That is indeed good news. I visited this cinema once about 20 years ago on a visit to Amsterdam and the Arnhem Art house cinema.
Have the plans maintened the opening of the cinema? Is it still running art house? Do you have any more information since this posting.
Regards
John