Film world sends out an SOS for Rome’s cinemas

Directors and actors in Europe and the US are campaigning to save some of Rome’s most iconic cinema buildings.

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Jane Campion and Ken Loach are just a few of those supporting 87-year-old architect Renzo Piano who recently wrote to the La Repubblica newspaper.

“This is my heartfelt appeal to ensure that the cinemas, these precious ‘places for the people’ are preserved in the urban fabric of our cities, and in particular those of Rome,” wrote Piano, who designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris and London’s Shard.

Concern for the fate of Rome’s cinemas grew in late February when asset management companies Colliers Global Investors and Wrm Capital paid a reported €50 million for nine cinemas.

Some, like the Adriano, built as a theatre in 1898 and now a multiplex, are still functioning although others were closed years ago.

Rome cinemas could become shopping malls

The acquisition came at the same time as a proposed law that would change the regulations which currently prevent Rome’s cinemas from being converted into anything other than cultural centres.

Instead, the new legislation would allow up to 50 of the city’s oldest but closed cinemas to become shopping centres, supermarkets or hotels.

Scorsese, inspired by Piano’s fears, has now issued an open letter signed by 500 of  cinema’s biggest names, appealing to politicians including prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella to block the development plans.

“The attempt to repurpose spaces intended for the possible cultural renaissance of the Eternal City into hotels, shopping centres and supermarkets is utterly unacceptable,” Scorsese wrote.

“Such a transformation would represent an irrevocable loss, a profound sacrilege not only to the city’s rich history but also to the cultural legacy for future generations.”

New law could encourage cinema closures

Talking to the entertainment publication Variety, the president of Rome’s Cinema America collective, Valerio Carocci, said that the proposed law would also encourage  the owners of still-active cinemas to close them and increase their value as properties.

“It’s therefore a death sentence for Rome’s future generations,” Carocci added.

Nor is the campaign limited to film world’s professionals.

Comparing the cinemas to “places of memories, magic and daydreams”,  former professional footballer Francesco Totti, who captained AS Roma, has also signed Scorsese’s letter.

“The cinemas of our childhood cannot become shopping malls,” Totti declared to the media.

“Remembering moments as teenagers and kids spent at the cinema is a tradition and a value we must pass on to the new generations” Totti said. “We need places for sports, culture, kindergartens and schools, not more shopping malls.”