Gartenbau Kino

irishdream on December 22, 2013 at 6:37 pm

Several Films of the Viennale are shown in the Gartenbaukino.

batesman on August 28, 2011 at 7:14 pm

Hi, just a few notes:

The Gartenbau opened on December 19th 1960 with Stanley Kubrick’s SPARTACUS (in 70mm!), Kirk Douglas was in attendance with his wife Anne Buydens. It was the first theatre in Austria to be equipped with a 70mm screen and projectors (DP70). It had 900 seats. It was first adapted into a 3-strip Cinerama theatre in May of 1961, a suitably curved screen was installed in front of the 70mm screen, reducing the seats to 840. WINDJAMMER was the first 3-strip film to be shown (in Cinemiracle) and the longest-running feature (37 weeks). Further films utilizing the 3-strip technology were not shown until November of 1962.

Dec.17th was the premiere date of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, about the 50th film shown in 70mm at the Gartenbaukino.

In 1982 the original seating was de-installed, reducing the capacity to 760; in 1992 a further row was removed, bringing the capacity to 736.

In the same year the curtain still operating today was installed. It is indeed a horizontal curtain, to my knowledge the only one of it’s kind still operational in Austria today.

The architect responsible for the Gartenbau was Robert Kotas, who conceived, built and renovated over 40 cinemas all over Austria. More on him at another time…