The opera cinema is obvious when one walks down Serapio Rendón, in the San Rafael neighborhood in Mexico City. When passing there, You can't stop looking at the majestic and even chilling building which ever housed one of the most popular cinematographic enclosures in the Mexican capital.
Opened in 1949, the cinema was open until 1998 When he definitely closed its doors. Given the lack of maintenance to its structures, the building ran the risk of collapsing and that caused the authorities to declare it as a danger. However, What did this enclosure make so important?
Comedy and tragedy are represented in two sculptures that decorate the facade in style Art Decó of opera cinema.Pedro Rodríguez
Icon of Art Deco Mexican
On March 11, 1949, the opera cinema was inaugurated in the land that, before the Juaristas reforms, had occupied the orchards of the Convent of San Cosme and San Damian. The building that would occupy the film enclosure was designed by architect Felix T. Nunciowho also made «the pools, bathrooms and dressing rooms for women» of the University City.
The architectural style chosen for cinema was the Art Deco. This style was seen in the sober details of the facade, such as its Great cornice that supports two female sculptures that represent the comedy and the tragedy, respectively. Behind them, a large window (now covered with dust) served to Natural illuminate the main lobby that gave access to the great projection room.
Inside, the design was not far from the outer grandiosity of the enclosure. Manuel Fontanals —The great Spanish set designer who worked with Emilio “El Indio” Fernández, Juan Bustillo Oro, Alberto Gout or in the famous Arturo Ripstein tape, The Castle of Purity– was in charge of an interior design project that will reflect elegance and majesty. The result was a lobby decorated with walls covered with mirrors, great marble sculptures that represented the fine arts, and bronze candlesticks and luminaries that achieved an opulence syncretism.