Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Cinema is coming to Accra

Countless cosy cinemas with fancy names like Rex, Roxy, Rivoli and Globe japanned the face of Accra some twenty years ago. They were all built like the saloons in the wild-west movies, only with wider doors and cement walls in cream or green or yellow.

The doors swung open to yield a yawning yard of hard, concrete floor inch-packed with collapsible metal chairs. The far-end wall, behind a seemingly purposeless dais, held a wide wooden white board – crude screen for the cine projector.

Outside, the brightly coloured posters of the stars of the day were Blu-tacked on the weather-beaten display boards. Mean machines like Stallone and Schwarzenegger muscled for meagre space with kung-fu magicians like Chang and Chang (aren’t they all Chang? :-) and Lee. Thin-air-clad video vixens appealed with sultry smile or supple skin that electrified the evening air, and seduced many a homecoming mind into a money-spilling voyeur.

The ancient cinema of Accra was big, big business. On non-video nights, the chairs were neatly stacked in the mouldy crannies of the room, and the open floor, lacquered in bright lights, became a steamy dance floor. The open-top design flung the reckless music into the resting night, attracting the teeming horde into the cinema.

Church flock, churchlike folds and associations held meetings in the cinemas with the more-equal animals haunting the dais (utility after all). It was a shamelessly sensual scene to see convention goer glide grim-faced past the scandal-selling seductress on the devil’s display board.

Suddenly, the cinemas disappeared. The bounty of the market was lost to home videos; churches and shops took over. But I’m told the Accra Mall will open a cinema shortly, and glossy posters of sinfully sexy houris will appear once again, and richly defile every bare wall in the city of Accra ;)

12 comments:

  1. Good to see you back to 'normal' Nana. Really good.

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  2. Thanks, anon. The block was more writer's than cardiac :D but thanks.

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  3. Buddy, what happened to the very private ones like the Living Room at East Legon?

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  4. But, my friend Anon, I mean real cinemas with surround systems and hundreds of seats, and not small rooms for private viewing :-) though private viewing is a goldmine I will write about one day.

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  5. The cinema was also lost to cheap "Alaha" DVD players and pirated discs from China ... $2 for 16, sometimes 24 full length movies compressed on one disc. The Chinese Empire strikes back.

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  6. I agree with you in principle (about the DVDs) but I recall that the king of that day was the VHS video cassette :-)

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  7. well, i dunno abt the cinemas. was too young then to get into the groove of things. busy Internet has a cinema too , did u know that?

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  8. Yes, Bentuma, I know that. But my answer is still the same as what I said to Kiz. I am talking about a grand cinema hall with surround and all.

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  9. I just read this post now, and i can't believe that Accra has not had a cinema all this time. Yeah i get the fact about fake DVD's etc..we have that here is South Africa as well, but the cinema business keeps booming. Well u guys enjoy the new cinema when it opens, jeez we take those things for granted coz we have them. I think i'll go watch a movie at the cinema tomorrow...

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  10. Well, Showstopper, there are many little flick houses that have tiny video rooms for private viewing for lovebirds. I believe their clientele is the young people. There is one cinema - The Executive - but I suspect the space is used more for conferences now. Maybe when you finally come to Ghana again, we can go to the movies :)

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  11. A whole capital city without a cinema....woow....

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  12. I see you consider a cinema a necessity. Maybe there are more pressing life (and social) needs here. People have many different media to watch movies on/in/through as well. :D

    Where're you from, MK?

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