Breitenseer Lichtspiele, Art house cinema in Penzing, Vienna, Austria.
Breitenseer Lichtspiele is a Ladenkino, a shop-front cinema built into a Gründerzeit corner house on Breitenseer Straße in Vienna's 14th district, Penzing. It has a single auditorium and still uses its old film projector, which the former owner Anna Nitsch-Fitz prized for remaining in working order.
The cinema opened in 1905 as Zeltkino Guggenberger, a tent cinema near today's site on Breitenseer Straße, and moved into its present building in 1909. In 2017 a planned closure was averted; in 2021 Christina Nitsch-Fitz and Dieter Mattersdorfer took over the running from Anna Nitsch-Fitz, who had led it until her death in early 2022. A 90,000-euro grant from Vienna's programme-cinema funding and a 57,000-euro building-cost subsidy secured its survival and a renovation.
The cinema shows only Austrian and European films, and regularly holds silent-film screenings that are sometimes accompanied by text or music. For these occasions it keeps a working piano. Regulars once had their own reserved seats, among them the Viennese poet H. C. Artmann.
The ticket office opens thirty minutes before the first screening, and the cinema shows Austrian and European productions regularly. Visitors should check the program before arriving since offerings vary by day of the week.
The cinema's owner until early 2022, retired teacher Anna Nitsch-Fitz, was especially proud of the old film projector, which still works today. Her niece Christina Nitsch-Fitz and Dieter Mattersdorfer took over the running of the house in 2021.
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