While the Dutch summer keeps toying around, going to the movies is, of course, a perfect indoor activity. I, myself, love to visit the cinema on those depressing dark and rainy days. Watch a nice movie, accompanied with some yummy snacks and a drink (or two). You could say we have two types of movie theaters in Amsterdam. The big theaters are Pathé, they offer mainly blockbusters and the somewhat bigger arthouse productions. The second type of movie theater you could classify as ‘cineville’ theater, these are a bit smaller and  focus on arthouse in general. Cineville is an organization these independent theaters are affiliated with, offering a membership for unlimited theater visits to film fanatics.

So, The Movies then. That would be the oldest movie theater of Amsterdam and is part of the Cineville affiliated theaters. The Movies is located on the Haarlemmerdijk, just on the border of the Jordaan district. The Movies was founded in 1912 as ‘Bioscoop Tavenu’, which later became ‘Cinema Hollandia’. Back in the days, The Movies used to be a rather small theater as well. The big motion pictures would be screened in the larger theaters first, and later came to the smaller theaters such as The Movies.

In the early 1970’s the theater was sold. The new owner gave the theater its current name and started programming quality films over action movies. He decided to keep the art deco interior of the cinema, which remains intact till this day. Business was booming, making a expansion possible and also adding a bar to the foyer of the cinema. Late 1980’s the theater was sold again and grew a bit more adding a restaurant as well.

For years the theater programmed late night screenings on Friday and Saturday night. For about eight years they showed A Clockwork Orange as part of a regular night program. The thing was that A Clockwork Orange contained some pretty heavy violent scenes, which caused for much controversy. The director, Stanley Kubrick, decided to ban the film in England, being stalked and attacked himself. In The Netherlands and Belgium the film premiered in his full form, where in the U.S. it was highly censored. This night screening tradition ended when the film finally became legal in England in 2000, a year after the director died.

With this rich history, beautiful decor and high quality programming The Movies is definitely one of my favorite movie theaters in Amsterdam. Perfect for a night out or an afternoon of hiding from rain and bad weather.

Sincerely,

Mr. J

Haarlemmerdijk 161 – 163

1013 KH Amsterdam

Open every day.

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