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BEFORE the revolution, there were 511 cinemas in Cuba, with 130-plus in greater Havana alone — more than Paris or New York at that time — and, after the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship, that number increased to more than 600 all over the country.
They delivered a visual spectacle which, like anywhere, was a shared experience. It was a world away from today’s streaming culture but times have changed on the island.
The unlawful and spiteful US blockade, condemned by the UN, and the hardships following the collapse of the Soviet Union have led to a gradual diminution of cinemas throughout the country.
Yet their distinctive architecture and cultural significance lives on in Carolina Sandretto’s book Cines de Cuba. In the space of four years she photographed more than 300 cinemas.
Tellingly, in each new place she visited it was the older generation who would point her in the direction of the local cinema.
Sandretto was astonished at the variety of their architecture, from the breathtaking neo-baroque splendour of Vicente Mora cinema in Guanajay or the modernist adventure of Havana’s Ambassador, Cine Juarez in Artemisa or Cinema Alquizar in Alquizar.
She photographed the colonial architecture of Teatro Roma in Guanajay and Teatro Milanes in Pinar del Rio, the modesty and simplicity of Cine Giron in San Luis and the endearing outdoor cinema Anfiteatro in Isabel Rubio.
Her intelligent framing conjures situationist vistas — joyous, distressing or just plain melancholic — that a Charles Baudelaire or Guy Debord would instantly recognise.
“I would like this book to be a document of the incredible cultural and architectural patrimony that Cuba has to offer to the world,” says Sandretto.
A pointer to the future is perhaps Havana’s Teatro Miramar — formerly Cine Miramar — which was lovingly restored in 2012 after £350,000 was raised in Britain by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. It is now a thriving theatre, education resource and community centre.
Cines de Cuba is published by Skira, price £60.
