Athenians watching their cinemas disappear

Times are changing, increasingly fewer people are going to the cinemas, as all of us who still go have discovered. What can one do? It's a part of life.

The Ideal cinema in downtown Athens, which opened in 1921, is being transformed into something vague, and the Astor cinema, which opened its doors in 1947 in the Korai Arcade, is under threat of closure, while other central movie theaters have already disappeared. What can we do? These things happen. Protecting them legally (by designating them historic cultural monuments) is no easy task - probably harder than memory.

Let's freshen that memory up a bit. Back in troubled 2012, the facade of the Attikon and Apollon movie theaters on central Stadiou Street was destroyed by fire. The halls remained intact. More than 10 years have passed since then and it seems there is no way they will ever reopen. Both the previous...