It was, really, just a disreputable cinema, dangerous and lewd, where riots took place, knives were drawn, roasting… reggae on the terrace
Rosiclair was a popular cinema, which operated at 12 Patision Street, opposite Mignon, in the period 1918-1968. It owes its name to the two daughters of the first German owner Flegenmeier, Rosa and Claire. As an old Athenian cinema, it had classical decoration, an exterior, entrance from the side of the screen and traditional wooden seats. It also operated in the morning showing two films.
A cinema for some infamous, while for others the ultimate expression of freedom. Intertwined with the history of cinema and its interactive relationship with the public, but also the history of the Athenian center. How many high school kids didn’t spend their school hours watching screenings of Rosiclair’s movies… How many cops didn’t spend their off hours eating passatembo and venting their repression in his dark, noisy hall…
Was it really just an ill-fated cinema, dangerous and lewd, where there were riots, knives out, roasting… reggae on the balcony and the audience smoking, eating, shouting and shopping during the screening? As Kostas Dimolitsas, a young director who in 2020 created a short documentary titled “Christ was born in Rosiclair”, says he believes the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Between the myths about extremes on the one hand and an idiosyncratic atmosphere of freedom and expression away from the supervision of power and police on the other, which understandably alienated the housewives of the time. He himself did a great deal of research on the subject, gathering information with the help of Nikolaidis, Voulgaris, Koutroubousis, who refers to Rosiclair in his collection of short stories. We also learn that Giorgos Chronas in the poem “The monologue of a taxi driver”, Tachtsis in “Fovero gampo” and Lapathiotis in one of his poems speak in one way or another about the controversial cinema. And we remember that Loukianos Kilaidonis dedicated his album “Media luz” to the Rosiclair generation.
So we see lay people and intellectuals meeting in a popular, infamous cinema in the center of Athens. And indeed it is said that there, in addition to hard-working students and well-to-do soldiers, you also found buffoons and patrons of Omonia, fringes, homosexuals and intellectuals. “In general, people came in out of curiosity. They didn’t look at what movies he was playing. The image and the journey were important,” says K. Dimolitsas. However, he played westerns, noirs, martial, sensual, mystery, etc. Only until 1927 was it first broadcast, then it became second.
The building that housed Rosiclair was demolished. There are few photos of him, and these only as a background in images from the construction of the tram lines and from a 1961 film.
