Movie reviews

HELIOS BLUE CITY IN WARSAW

Opening on Valentine's Day it's the 47th in Poland and the 1st in Warsaw Helios cinema. The Polish chain started operating in smaller towns, then expanded to big ones and now is planning to open a few more movie theatres in the capital. I asked the management to open one in Saska Kępa and the MD has "taken the order".

I've never been to the US, yet the cinema has purchased some elements of the interior right there. The design is New York City style: the hall has mock brick walls and street name plaques, which, together with about 50 other original elements, have been shipped from NYC. LCD displays of trailers abound. It looks confusing at first but the space is quite small so after a while you get the grip. Just as side streets of Times Square conceal theatres, you find hidden screening rooms with names of no-longer-existent Warsaw cinemas. A hall wall features a NYC panorama and the passages leading to screening rooms display black and white photos of former Warsaw cinemas. The creators see it as a boutique cinema or a 3K one, the 3 Ks standing for: Kino Koneserów Komfortu (Comfort Connoisseurs' Cinema).

But while NYC cinemas are said to be old and run-down, the Warsaw one is state-of-art. All projectors are 4K and one screen has the Real Laser RGB technology. The problem is rather that not all movies are recorded in 4K so the eventual quality may be below the cinema standard. As for Real Laser, it means faithful colours, where even white is real white. The RGB light source laser projector guarantees distinct colours and hues which reflect the movie maker's idea of the colour, also the screen is uniformly lit. 3D will be available too but, interestingly, while in the Near East and the rest of Asia 90% of tickets sold are 3D ones, in Poland it was just 23% in the best year and last year 3% only. 

The Dream rooms are fabulous. For the surcharge of 7 zlotys you get lots of leg room between the seats, which are soft but firm faux leather, with handy holders both for drinks and popcorn, and on top of that, if you press the button on the side of the seat (the one closer to the screen), the armchair lifts a footrest for you first and, if you keep pressing the button, the back reclines to an almost lying position. The superbly designed seats are better than watching from your own bed. Like the Helios chain director said, "if you fall asleep, you buy a ticket again". When I asked for air-con, I could feel the cool air straightaway though briefly. I enquired about the frequency of cleaning the seats since the footrest may get dirty from very short people's, especially children's shoes. I was assured they'd be wiped clean whenever a customer feels discomfort. 

Re-runs of Polish movies of a few monts earlier are planned at 10 zl only on Tuesdays - they'll be called Kultura Dostepna (meaning: accessible culture). Live transmissions of Polish theatrical performances are coming too. An old gentleman hoped for 36 mm films screenings but it turns out such ones had been given as farewell in other cities and brought no audience. Dolby Atmos is going to be marked in the website repertoir. Dream surcharge has been set at 7 zl, following in the footsteps of Gdańsk and Katowice which already have such screening rooms. Asked about one-room cinemas, the directors were adamant that such places are an economic suicide. People simply don't visit them often enough. The management estimates the number of Warsaw inhabitants as not 1.7 m but, based on the number of phones logging in the capital, as 2.5 m. Helios has screened films in Ukrainian dubbing in other locations so, obviously, special screenings of Polish movies subtitled in English are to be offered in the capital. Commercials before screenings are to run for 25 minutes maximum. Tickets are sold already. Cheap Tuesdays mean 14.50 zl all day (+ 7 zl Dream), maximum prices are 29.50 on weekdays and 33.50 zl at weekends. The 2D and 3D price is the same. You'll need to buy 3D glasses for 3 zl at the first visit so if you keep them for the future there'll be no extra cost. A gigantic cappuccino cup at the Helios Cafe costs 14 zl. According to the managers, a well-planned cinema brings profit from day one and a full return on the investment in 6 to 7 years. A special offer for cinemaniacs may be introduced once they see who frequents the cinema. Funnily, the upcoming night marathon on Friday will be screened at rooms called: Relax - for the comedies and Moskwa (Moscow) - for the horrors. I'm already scared of the horror one. The one screen I saw - at Palladium - was huge and each detail, even skin texture, e.g. CGI Alita's or real people like James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez', was clearly visible. As Valentine's Day and the marathon night coincide with a national mourning, no music will be played in the hall. But, since lots of tickets have been bought in pre-sale, the mourning will have no impact on the repertoir.