Rex Cinema

Cinema Rex was built on the site of the old Larnaca cinema called Salon Pink, a very beautiful neoclassical building which unfortunately burned down in 1948. In contrast, Cinema Rex, which had a home in a very beautiful neoclassical building which unfortunately burned down in 1948. In complete contrast to the architecture of the old cinema, Cinema Rex, finished in 1950 was constructed as a large long shell, space usually referred to from the locals as a warehouse. It was built in a hurry and carelessly because the tenants wanted to recover financially from the great damage caused by a fire.

Popular folk and action films were projected in Cinema Rex. It is known that in the 1950s when the cinema was opened, friends of cinema actively participated in the plot of the film, commenting and offering words of sympathy to the good ‘heroes’ and negative comments to the ‘villains’. This typically happened on Sunday afternoons when students were present at the projections. Some people still remember the atmosphere and can recall hearing the phrases “come on boy”, “shoot”, “good” in the cinema hall.

Some other fun facts that people still remember about the space include stories about how young people were taking film synopsis brochures, folding them into paper arrows and, adding pins to the tips, where tossing them and subsequently nailing them to the ceiling of the cinema. And that space had a moody atmosphere and squeaky wooden floors because the cinema’s floor was spattered with water before each screening in order to limit the dust caused by the footprints.

The Municipality of Larnaca tried to make the space into a cultural area but despite all the efforts, it did not succeed due to external factors.

Researcher Elia Neophytou