The Paraparaumu cinema has closed – a local asset gone temporarily anyway. We hope someone will pick up the tab and open it again. We hope it’s just in limbo.
Cinema, the industry, has come a long way. Once upon a time we went to ‘the flicks’. Does anyone remember? We borrowed that British slang term which was excellent! for it aptly described early efforts in this industry. Flick and flash; flick and flash… Nothing smooth about this entertainment, and no sound except music, not necessarily related to what was seen.
Charlie Chaplin was busy about this time loved by all. The jerkier the better.
Then came ‘the movies’, true movies. That was an American term descriptive of what had happened in the industry: the people on the screen actually walked about, sat down, looked truly human. ‘The flicks’ were gone forever. Movies were in. The British, however often used that engaging term’ the pictures’ and spoke of the picture theatre.
In the midst of all this there was that period of time when ‘the talkies’ arrived. Initially there had been simply the music The actors did not speak. Now it was amazing, voices heard, voices matching the movement. This was a great advance.
In all of these efforts film is used. That’s a word that has come from way back, of English origin, but now used almost universally throughout Central Europe. A triumph for little old Britain.
So what of cinema, the subject of our interest? Here we leap into history, and find a wonderful piece of information and bow to the French. The French? Yes indeed.
We must acknowledge the work of two Frenchmen – Auguste Marie 1862-1854, and Louis Jean 1864 – 1948 brothers, with the surname Lumiere a delicious name for men occupied in the use of light, lumen, in their work. These men were pioneers who invented a cinematograph and a process of colour photography. English adopted the word cinema from the French in 1897. It’s a noble word, from the original Greek kinema, a word which is used in various scientific studies kinetics, kinematics, and in kinetic art…
We’re proud of our cinema, its function and its name. May the amenity and the name stay long in our district, Paraparaumu.