Sunday 5 December 2010

Anita Nitsch-Fitz


The Dream Keeper


There is something extremely enchanting about a cinema, and, it takes a very magical person to run one; and one such spellbinding person is Anita Nitsch-Fitz. And her cinema, the Breitenseer Lichtspiele, is something quite special. It is not only the oldest in Vienna, but also the oldest of all. Wherever in the world you may go, you will find none that is older.

In its canyon of permanent darkness, the Breitenseer Lichtspiele has been playing out the magical world of shadows and light since 1905; and, it was into this world, in which moving dreams could be frozen, re-wound, fast-forwarded and repeated at will, that Anita Nitsch-Fitz was born and grew up in.

Hers was the time of the black and white greats: Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplain, and the Keystone Cops amongst others. Theirs was the world of silent expression in which the pure art of acting excluded the need of speech which was wasted.

The silent films were globalization in the truest sense of the word, and, it was to this world of innocent fun, that thousands were able go and to hide from a desperate world that was sliding and sinking into an ever-deepening hole of suffering and chaos.

But, when it gets dark the morning always comes, and, at the end of the war, the Breitenseer Lichtspiele was still there; and when Anita Nitsch-Fitz took it over, the cinema was experiencing its best time of all. TV was still a dot upon the horizon, and, night after night, all over the world, illusions and dreams were still shining brightly and brilliantly going from reel to reel.

Now-a-days, with the changing of times, Anita Nitsch-Fitz has changed her cinema as well. It has now become a monument to the very best of what this greatest art form has ever produced. Her programme is not only interesting and varied, but it is full of surprises as well.

But one thing is sure, and that is, as long as Anna Nitsch-Fitz keeps opening her doors, our illusions and the magic of the dark, the light and the shadows can continue. For Anita Nitsch-Fitz is a keeper of dreams.

Our joy can continue!


The Breitenseer Lichtspiele - 1140 Wien. Breitenseerstrasse 21.
http://www.bsl-wien.at/

My address. njmailboy@gmail.com

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I have been writing the Diaikom since 2009.  Regular short stories, interviews, essays, recordings and more. All taken from life.  I have me...