The show goes on at the Tuschinski, Amsterdam’s most spectacular cinema where ‘everything is interesting’

In the summer of 2012, the Royal Theatre Tuschinski, a cinema close to Amsterdam’s bustling Rembrandt Square, received a phone call from the concierge of a local hotel. “We have a VIP who wants to go to the movies,” the cinema’s manager, David Hanemaayer, recounts the caller telling him. The VIP in question wanted to watch Intouchables, a French film that had become a global box-office hit. That same weekend, Madonna was in town for two sold-out concerts as part of her MDNA tour. Hanemaayer put two and two together. The team at the Tuschinski had to hustle to arrange English subtitles for the screening (the film had been showing with Dutch subtitles). Then, on the Friday night, the Queen of Pop entered the theatre through the back door and took her seat in the majestic surroundings.

Madonna’s choice of venue should come as no surprise. The Tuschinski is a marvel of design. The mesmerising mix of styles includes art deco, art nouveau and the Amsterdam school, a Dutch architecture movement characterised by expressive, fantastical shapes that was popular between 1910 and 1940. When the venue opened in 1921, there were three theatres inside that hosted cinema screenings and live performances. Sometimes audiences were treated to both: in the grand main cinema, live entertainers would open the evening in lieu of the trailers to which we are accustomed today. On the first floor, an intimate cabaret theatre, La Gaîté, hosted performers including Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker. Today, it’s a smaller screening room, and the Tuschinski is part of the largest cinema chain in the Netherlands, Pathé.

Its six screens show mostly Hollywood movies, with arthouse pictures popping up in the programming every now and then. When Monocle visits, the Tuschinski has just reopened after nine weeks of long-overdue renovations. On the ceiling above the entrance to the main cinema, a colourful art deco painting has been restored to its original splendour. Also striking are the custom-made new red chairs. But the most urgent renovation concerned its 25-year-old lighting. When one of the lights would fail, there was no way to replace them. Now, they have all been switched for LEDs. “There isn’t a single cinema or concert hall that wants the lights to not go on or off again,” says Hanemaayer, who has been the Tuschinski’s manager for 18 years.

The refresh has been about upkeep rather than overhaul. The Tuschinski is a national heritage site inside and out – it cannot be significantly altered. When it opened more than a century ago, artists were recruited to provide everything from the stained-glass windows to the murals and lights. Look up in the main cinema and you will see an extravagant lamp by Christiaan Bartels, made to resemble a peacock’s tail. It’s surrounded by peacock patterns painted by Johann Kromhout. The bird, a symbol of beauty and immortality, also adorns the walls of the ground-floor foyer.

Critics initially turned up their noses at the mishmash of styles. It wasn’t until much later that the Tuschinski’s design was celebrated. Standing in the aisle, Hanemaayer points to the bottom of the balcony: a patch of vibrant patterning peeks through the grey paint. “Sometime in the 1930s, they decided that they didn’t like it anymore,” he says. Elsewhere, Dutch painter Pieter den Besten created 18 portraits of women in 1931, only for them to be covered five years later. They weren’t found again and restored until 2000.

Abraham Tuschinski, the venue’s founder, insisted that the balconies had no pillars to ensure unobstructed views. Instead, there’s a long beam inside the cinema that acts as a counterweight. As a result, the main balcony sinks about 3mm when it is filled with moviegoers, then bounces up again once the theatre empties. “The story goes that you would hear it creaking in the middle of the night,” says Hanemaayer. “The night porter thought it was the phantom of the Tuschinski.” Hanemaayer remarks that “everything is interesting in this building”. It’s quite a shame, then, that audiences spend most of their time inside the Tuschinski with the lights off.
pathe.nl