This column hosts portraits of cinemas in Europe and the rest of the world which are quite different from one another but have in common the fact that they have all adopted digital projection.

Cinema Arcadia

A new cinema amidst the thousand and one obstacles of the pandemic
by Virginia Fanin

Conceived in 2019, in a different era, when Covid didn’t exist, the “Arcadia” brand’s new baby was inaugurated on 27 October 2021. Thanks to its avant-garde architecture and exceptional comfort, this seven-screen complex has become the carnation in the buttonhole of the new wing expanding the “Le Due Torri” shopping center in Stezzano by 8,000 sq. m.

We’re alongside the A4, the motorway running across North Italy and joining Turin and Milan to Venice and the Gulf of Trieste, more precisely at the gates of Bergamo, the city that suffered most during the pandemic.

It goes without saying that the expansion of the shopping center and the opening of the cinema are seen locally as a sign of hope. Not by chance the ceremony inaugurating the new wing, which took place in the afternoon, was attended by institutional representatives who stressed that the realisation of this project is an important step towards a return to normality.

In the evening it was the cinema that was in the limelight. Four hundred guests took part in the event, including Mario Lorini and Simone Gialdini, respectively President and Director General of the ANEC, the association of the cinema exhibitors, invited by Piero Fumagalli, the independent exhibitor considered the Italian pioneer of the new generation of multi-screen cinemas.

A tour of the complex, designed by the Architect Benjamin Feldtkeller, an expert in the leisure sector, made it possible to appreciate its innovative aspects.

Starting from the vast bar area, which welcomes spectators without obliging them to pass through a barrier of old-style cash-desks, and continues with the design of the theatres, marked by the exceptional size of the screens and by the distance between the rows of armchair seats, all of which can even be reclined and are fitted with foot rests and power sockets for recharging portable devices.

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Arcadia: a family affair
The Fumagalli family, exhibitors with a passion
by Elisabetta Brunella

It was certainly not the first time that the Fumagalli family had invited to an inauguration colleagues, friends, suppliers and authorities and all those who had contributed towards making their cinemas - or better their dreams.

Yet this evening event at Stezzano - while it’s only too banal to say that it’s a good sign of a return to normality - highlights that perseverance and confidence in the future that are characteristics of Piero Fumagalli, founder of the Arcadia brand, and of his family.

I still remember the inauguration of the Arcadia in Melzo, in the Milan metropolitan area, in 1997: no-one had ever seen a complex like this in Italy. And not even abroad, where multiplexes and multi-screen cinemas had come into being far earlier than they did in Italy.

The pre-opening for colleagues - whilst the gardeners were still putting the finishing touches to the plants for the inauguration ceremony with the Minister of Cultural Affairs - had revealed a wealth of marvels.

The clearly visible projection booths (still with analogical projectors, including the rare but everlasting 70 MM), the lighting diffused by 3M optic fibre fitted at the base of the screens and armchair seats, the pear-wood floors, light years away from the ever-present wall-to-wall carpeting in the complexes belonging to Europe’s big chains, but above all the giant (technically “Premium Large Format”) Energia auditorium with its 30-metre-wide screen…

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