“Want to go to the movies with me?”
Outdoor cinemas are Bratislava’s latest trend and for good reason. They offer a much more authentic experience and don’t trap you inside an air-conditioned room.
In Slovakia, summer cinemas experienced their greatest glory during the former communist regime. At that time, there was at least one open-air cinema in almost every city. After the fall of the regime in 1989, however, air-conditioned multiplexes with comfortable seats and popcorn came in and many summer cinemas disappeared. In the last few years people have begun to once again enjoy watching movies under a starry sky and summer cinemas have returned to life. In Bratislava alone there are more than 10 outdoor cinemas in operation this summer. All screen for free and some of them even provide blankets and bug repellents to make the experience better.
“We achieved a record audience last year when about 2,000 people came to see the Slovak film Kidnapping at Kuchajda’s summer cinema,” said Marek Tettinger, spokesperson of the Bratislava borough of Nové Mesto, which operates the cinema. “It also happened that when it was raining, people came in raincoats.”
There are other outdoor cinemas in Ružinov, in the Líščie Údolie valley as well as in Rača, while almost all of them report an increasing interest in screenings.
Bažant Kinematograf
Cinema on the beach
The Bažant Kinematograf road cinema settled on Magio beach on the Petržalka bank of the Danube this summer for the eighth year already. Films are screened here each evening from Saturday until Wednesday while the focus is on the latest films and legendary cinema. Part of the programme are meetings with filmmakers.
Travel Cinema in Eurovea
Foreign films are screened in the original language with Slovak or Czech subtitles. For example, filmgoers can see the legendary Yellow Submarine with music by the Beatles on July 21, Paddington 2 on July 25, The Death of Stalin on August 4, or T2 Trainspotting on August 12. Slovak films include Mečiar on August 13, The Line (Čiara) on July 23 and the Czech movie Tátova volha (Patrimonyon) on August 6. Moulin Rouge, an American jukebox musical romantic comedy film featuring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, will close the screening on the beach on August 17.
In general summer cinema programmes are usually composed of the latest successful movies, as well as musical and cult films. Very popular are fairy tales and animated films since entire families can come and enjoy them. In two summer cinemas – in Nové Mesto (the area of Kuchajda lake) and Ružinov (the area of Štrkovec lake) – visitors themselves decide on the film to be screened by voting on the internet.
In the outdoor cinema in the Líštie Údolie valley operated by the Karlova Ves local council, they prefer Czech and Slovak cinema.
