In the Czech Republic, as in most of the former communist countries that are now either full or potential members of the EU, the film exhibition landscape has been marked in recent years by the development of the multiplexes. In Prague this development has reached a point of saturation, so that the multiplexes are now concentrating their development in other urban centres. On the flipside of exhibition, numerous initiatives have attempted to introduce cinema from other countries, and a perfect example is provided by the Aero cinema. Member of Europa Cinemas since 2000, the Aero is one of the most dynamic independent theatres in the capital. It became a network member as part of the Eurimages programme, and has benefited from the support offered by MEDIA since January 2003.
 
The Kino Aero stands out for many reasons. Situated in the heart of the popular Zizkov district, twenty minutes by tram from Venceslas Square, it is one of the trendy spots in town, and contributes to the youthful image of the neighbourhood. The entrance hall of the cinema is in fact a bar, and the atmosphere is very relaxed for a cinema showing films d’auteur. The cinema’s programming has something for everyone and is particularly attractive to young audiences, who come to see reruns of classic films little shown in other Czech cinemas, or to the festivals often featuring European directors. Recently one such cycle was dedicated to Pedro Almodovar, and another to English cinema. The entire programming is online on the (bilingual!) site of the cinema, which keeps abreast of modern marketing techniques. The Aero’s original programming and inventive communication methods have borne fruit: the cinema has over 100,000 admissions per year, which is more than respectable for a single screen with 336 seats. In 2003, the titles attracting the most viewers (over 1,000 per film), regardless whether European, Czech or American, were all films d’auteur, recent or classic. Countrywide the cinema ranked 19th in terms of attendance in 2003. Only two single-screen cinemas did better, the top 15 spots being taken by the multiplexes.
 
To find out more about the activities of the cinema and its current development, we went to Ivo Andrle, manager of the Kino Aero.
 
1 – Could you tell us a few words about Kino Aero’s story? How did you manage to make it one of the main cinema in Prague?
 
It’s a very long story. The cinema was built more than 70 years ago. However, between 1948 and 1989, the cinema was managed by the one and only state company, which was running all the cinemas in the country. It was just one of many cinemas, all of them screening the same films for the same price with the same atmosphere.
After 1989 many cinemas were privatized. Kino Aero was one of the last to stay in the hands of the state until 1997. Then the local municipality took it under its wings and offered it for rent. We wrote down a project of an arthouse cinema, which was a very naive one, I must say, as nothing similar existed in the whole country at that time. We did not have any experiences with running a cinema at all !
Anyway, our project won, we got the keys of the cinema and we started to run it in February 1998.
From the very beginning, we’ve been focusing on two things : programming and atmosphere. We believe that these two are very much connected and that one does not work without the other. It would be difficult to offer the kind of programmation we have in a polished multiplex downtown.
So, we built a bar with a photo gallery in the lobby of the building. We put special drink holders on the seats and basically played with details. Very soon, we learned that for the viewers, these are important things. They started to talk not only about the movies, but also about the ?small things? they like in Kino Aero. It’s just the same concerning our communication: we always tried to create a friendly atmosphere and built up a strong relation between the audience and Kino Aero itself. This must reflect in every aspect of our communication: printed programming brochures, mailinglist, lectures (before screenings), etc.
Thanks to the support from the Czech and European founders, we were soon able to refurnish the cinema with new seats, dolby digital sound system, digital projection, so that we could offer standard comfort to the people.
Until today, the community-like audience is one of our main strengths in comparison with other cinemas in the city.
 
2 – What’s your programming and what does the word “cooperation” mean for you?
 
Today, there are more single screen cinemas in Prague, which consider themselves as arthouse cinemas, than there were in 1998 when we opened. Thanks to the growth of the number of multiplexes in the last 5 years, the only option for many single screens was to transform themselves into arthouse cinemas. Therefore, the competition on this field grew as well.However, Kino Aero’s programming includes many titles that are not available through normal distribution channels. This works especially with film weeks and retrospectives, which we regularly organize. Each month, our programme includes 7-10 days retrospective of a director, a territory, a theme or a genre. These “festivals” are supported with a lot of advertising and media attention. That makes Kino Aero a specific place, easy to recognize among other cinemas.
Lots of film events are built in cooperation with local film festivals (for example the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Jeden Svet international documentary film festival and The Days of European Films), foreign institutes (like the French one or the British Council) and other bodies.
Kino Aero is also a flagship cinema of the Association of Czech Film Clubs (ACFK) – a nationwide organization that unites approximately 120 member film clubs. ACFK also acts as a distributor of classic and arthouse movies and Kino Aero works as a servicing organization in negotiations of distribution deals. Another field of ACFK activities is film education. Kino Aero is participating in a project called Film and School, where high quality films (both classic and contemporary ones) are presented to high-school teachers and students.
 
3 – You’ve been involved in the setting of a new activity for two cinemas in the country. Can you tell us a little more about it? In Prague, you’re involved in the creation of Osa9, a kind of small network of 4 arthouse cinemas. Is it an answer to the lack of screens for arthouse movies?
 
In the previous years, we enlarged our activities and were involved in the opening of two more cinemas. One of them is the Kino Central at Hradec Kralove (a city of 100 000 inhabitants located 100 km in the East of Prague). In this city, a multiplex was built three years ago and all the other cinemas (owned by the city) closed. So, we rented the cinema from the city and try to prove that there is an audience for art movies. So far, the results (especially in financial terms) are not very optimistic, but with some support from the state bodies we should be able to set this project for a long-term self-sufficiency.
The second enlargement is the Kino Svetozor. It is a two screens (488 and 55 seats) cinema
located in the very centre of Prague. Here, we want to transform the cinema into a recognized
premiere arthouse cinema, which runs in a weekly programming basis and starts screenings at
11:00 AM. Our big expectations are connected with the smallest hall, as it allows us to present minor genres (like documentaries, experimental, animation movies, etc.) on a regular basis. The first six months proved that such a cinema was needed in Prague. All arthouse distributors are very much welcoming such a venue for presenting their movies in the first weeks after their release.
We believe that Kino Svetozor will quickly get a very good reputation and become a main arthouse venue in the city.
Both Kino Aero and Kino Svetozor are involved in the project called Line 9. Four arthouse cinemas (all connected by the tram line number 9) decided to cooperate and offer distributors a non-stop showing of their films during the three or four weeks following the premiere. This cooperation is a very new approach of very precious value for distributors releasing their titles on a small number of prints. For the first three months of 2005, some 15 titles were selected (i.e. all four cinemas agreed on screening the actual titles), there will be a common promotion (posters, flyers), so that people can easily find specific titles in the cinemas of Prague.
 
4 – Kino Aero, Kino Svetozor and Kino Central are all equipped with a digital projector. Is the digital projection a means to screen more movies and/or different movies?
 
In all the three cinemas, a significant part of the films are screened with a digital projector. Some Czech distributors handle public video rights and that allows us to increase the number of titles we screen. Some of the classic films, for example, are only available on DVD in the country. Also, during various retrospectives, filmweeks, film festivals, some of the films are screened from DVD, BETA or other formats.
Digital projectors also help us to work on minor genres. Each screening opens with a short movie, which is very often not available on 35mm. That also counts for a large number of documentaries and experimental movies.
Bontonfilm is now releasing some titles on DVD. The first one was a documentary called Tatinek (Father) by Jan Sverak about his father.
If there would be more cinemas with digital equipment, more attention would be paid from the side of distributors and producers and more films would be using this (cheaper) possibility.