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Small Movie Theaters

Konstanty Ildefons Galcyznski
 

Those small movie theatres are best
for heartsickness and dilemmas,
with chairs upholstered in velour
plush and red as the heart.

Outside, there’s daylight left
but the lamps have started swaying
casting meandering shadows
across the coming attractions. 

Urchins holler to the heavens
in beams of artificial light
as they peddle cigarettes,
irises, shoelaces.

Evening has already fallen;
the moon reaches out its hand.
Those small movie theatres are best
For heartsickness and dilemmas.

With cascading locks the cashier
reigns in her gilded booth;
you take your ticket and enter
the darkness that sings with the film.

Cinematic thickets rustle,
but differently: there are palms,
and above the endless sidewalk
floats a silvery trail of smoke.

It’s cozy here, just right
for waiting out gales and the rain 
without saying a thing,
with nothing to run from.

The stream of silver courses
right through your battered heart.
In the small movie theater you doze,
a love letter in its envelope.

“You’re more wonderful than anyone!
I will sleep alone, again.
Which bridge should I wait for you on?
 Signed,
  Your faithful Teddy Bear.”

You exit muzzy-headed,
full of dreams and cinema,
through the endless outskirts,
wandering, concluding that

those small movie theatres are best;
you forget everything there;
they are the inns of the poor
on another miserable day. 

(1947)
 
 
 

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Readers' Comments
 

enjoyed this poem a lot
- Fiona, UK

This piece brought back memories of the visit by my wife and myself to Cracow several years ago. On a rainy afternoon we caught up on two recent Hollywood Films in the Passage Kino for less than the price of lunch. Keep up the interesting material.
- Howard, USA
 
Translation © Cracow Letters 2004

All material on this page © Cracow Letters 2004

Kino Pasaz is tucked into the old commercial passage (Pasaz Bielaka) leading from the corner of Grodzka and the Rynek to ulica Stolarska. The entranceway is decorated in Gomulka Pine Modern. A wooden barrier blocks the way into the tiny lobby while the feature is playing. 

For years, Kino Pasaz has shown "A-movie" features a few weeks or months after they leave the marquees at the first-run cinemas.

Other small movie theatres carry on the old Discussion Film Club (DKF) mission of reviving classics and highlighting noteworthy offerings, many of them foreign, that never made general release. 

On the second weekend in July, Kino Pasaz was showing Lost in Translation, The Passion of the Christ, and Monster.

Kino Mikro, located across from Park Krakowski at ul. Lea 5, was showing a review of recent French film hits, plus Innocence (Australian), and Intacto (Spanish). Mikro is another small cinema with a classic period interior.

Kino Paradox, a small room upstairs in the venerable YMCA building at ul. Krowoderska 8, was showing David Lynch's The Straight Story and Lost in Translation. Paradox has the most varied schedule of any small cinema, screening  classics (including silent ones) and films from counries off the beaten track. Longtime local favorite Jim Jarmusch just keeps coming back at the Paradox. 

The Pod Baranami, part of the remnants of the once-thriving cultural center in the palace of the same name at Rynek Glowny 27, has a frequently changing schedule similar to that of Kino Pasaz. 

Several of Cracow's oldest larger movie theaters have shut down in recent years, but the much dreaded impact of the new multiplexes in the suburban shopping centers has not been as apocalyptic as many feared. 

In particular, the small movie theaters seem to be hanging in there. For many, they are indeed the best place to watch a movie, and not only on Galczynski's "miserable days" of "heartbreak and dilemmas." 

Ticket prices are usually a few zloty lower than at the first-run houses. Visitors from other countries may be staggered at how low the prices can be--while Poles complain about them, they are surely a bargain in international terms. 

With few exceptions, films are shown in the original language with Polish subtitles.