Ebert Club
Sheila writes: There's something heartbreaking about a dilapidated
movie theater. With the whole world going multiplex, the quirky
independent movie theaters are quickly disappearing. Moscow photographer
Sergey Novikov spent two years traveling around in Moscow and St.
Petersburg, seeking out the abandoned movie theaters built in the
Constructivist style of architecture, so familiar to him in his youth.
The result is a series of haunting photographs he calls "Breathless". In a fascinating email interview, Novikov says: "I
perceive them as rare, unique objects and often the movie theater is
the only handsome building in a district so my urge was just to keep
them in a time, place and memory through documenting. These cinemas are
frozen in time, being parted from movies but their identity preserved; a
frontispiece and a name. Destruction sometimes happens quickly -
yesterday it was in front of you and today it is already demolished.
They are breathless. Vanishing scenery."