Cinema Diana - Cairo, Egypt
Posted by: 
Torgut
N 30° 03.209 E 031° 14.702
36R E 330815 N 3326009
A wonderful classic movie theater in Downtown Cairo, perhaps the best preserved of it's 30's generation with all its Art Deco splendor still intact
Waymark Code: WM19GH9
Location: Egypt
Date Posted: 02/25/2024
Views: 0
This old movie theater is located on the corner of Mohammed Bek Al Alfi and Emad el-Deen. This is Downtown Cairo and an area with many other cinemas, vintage and modern.
Diana Cinema opened in the 30's. by then as Diana Palace Cinema. As other cinemas it was hit by a bomb, in January 1952.
Its facade is Art Deco and it hides a magnificent interior.
It was designed by Gaston Rossi, from Dominioni, Rossi & Salama, and although it was renovated in the 60's, it remains faithful to the original concept, untouched by modernization.
From
(
visit link)
"Decorated with traditional geometric art deco designs incorporating glass and chrome, Diana Palace’s foyer is typical of the movie theatres of the 1930s. Complex groupings of rectangle and trapezoid shapes festoon the majestic wrought iron double staircase which leads to the landing. There, a magnificently carved mirror reflects the thousand sparkling lights of a huge crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. In complete contrast to the lavishly decorated foyer, the auditorium with its seating capacity of 1,500, has sober light fixtures set on the typically austere Art Deco lines of its walls.
In its heyday, Diana Palace was a prestigious first-run movie theatre, with a mixture of elegance and artistry, where smoking jackets and long flowing gowns were de rigueur and where during the entr’acte – the interval – the beau monde went out in the foyer to sip Martinis and smoke Havanas. Produced by the owners of Nahas Films, Edmund and Gabriel, the first Arabic musical film, George Abyad’s ‘Song of the Heart’ (Onshoudat al-Fouad) was released on 4 April 1932 at Cinema Diana Palace.
Today, Cinema Diana is relegated to the category of ‘second-class’ cinema, playing mainly Egyptian films and often double-features, to mostly empty houses. Nevertheless, this magnificent example of a stylish art deco movie theatre should be considered lucky because it has escaped the fate of many of its contemporaries."