Page 32 - CinemaRecord #85

LOBETHAL - THE DEATH OF A CINEMA?

Noel Probert

he final credits are rolling on the story of
Tthe Cinema. The distinctive art deco
building was the first in the Adelaide Hills to
be designed with cinema in mind, but the rapid
rise of digital technology is drawing the curtain
on the community-run theatre.
The 35 mm film stock that has been the indus-
try standard for more than a century has been
under threat since the first digital projectors
appeared in the late 1990s, but it looks likely
that 2014 will mark the end of analogue. In
January, Paramount Pictures was the first ma-
jor studio to announce that it would no longer
release movies on film, with Martin Scorsese’s
The Wolf of Wall Street becoming their first
digital-only release.

Lobethal projectionist Daniel Schache says
the demise of film came quickly. He was told
in October that distributors couldn't guarantee
supply of film beyond Christmas, but even
that estimate proved optimistic. “The ware-
house shut down in December,” he Above and below: The Art Deco styled Lobethal Cinema. Images: Royce Harris
says. “There’s no more film in
South Australia."
about it,” says Schache. “It’s the end of an Lobethal’s cinema may have been the first to
era.” be purpose built, but town halls across the
Adelaide Hills were used for weekly screen-
Motion pictures were first screened ings. Residents of Stirling, Uraidla, Bird-
in Lobethal in 1919 at the Senior wood, Mount Barker, Aldgate and many other
Citizens Hall. The initial popu- towns would gather to see feature films as
larity of the new medium was well as newsreels, the current affairs programs
boosted by the arrival of ‘talkies’ of the pre-TV era.
in 1932 and by 1936, when the
The Lobethal Centennial Hall was It’s not the first time advances in technology
have caused the closure of the cinema. During
sudden cut meant built, cinema was an integral part of
social life. Locals contributed to the the 1980s, the rise of television, home video
the cinema went out with a players and multiplex theatres with rumbling
whimper rather than a bang: a hand- new hall by buying seats for a pound surround sound made small-town cinemas
ful of people attended the final screening, each, their contribution recognised by
br ass nameplates which can still be seen on unprofitable, but there was a short-lived resur-
witnessing the exploits of an animated snail in gence at a few Adelaide Hills halls in the
Turbo. “We were hoping to be able to an- the seat backs. 1990s. Aldgate and Mount Barker ran movie
nounce the last movie, make a bit of a thing
nights for a time, with audiences trading off
comfort and high-end sound for a cheap ticket
and a bit of community spirit.
Cinema returned to Lobethal in 1993 when
Clarrie Seidel set up a 16 mm projector in the
hall, followed by the 35 mm unit that still
dominates the tiny projection room.

“I’d been mucking around with movies for 50
years,” says Seidel. “I used to go around
showing them in different places - Birdwood,
Woodside, Lobethal and Mount Barker. On a
Saturday night there’d be cars crossing the
Hills during the interval, running the films
between Birdwood and Mount Barker to swap
them over.” Seidel, now in his eighties, stayed
on as projectionist for 21 years before handing
the responsibility to Daniel Schache.

“I was on the hall committee and I wanted to
be involved,” says Schache. “I started helping
out, then we alternated, sharing the load until
Clarrie gave it up. All the projection and
sound gear belongs to him. He said we could
carry on using it, but if we need to upgrade it’s
up to us.”

32 CINEMARECORD # 85