a bridge at night © Lilly Schwartz 2012

Did I ever tell you that I love going to the cinema? The big screen, the fantastic sound system, the smell of popcorn, the trailers, the stupid “Does anyone want ice cream?” bit before the movie starts, the anticipation. Of course there is also that slightly odd feeling when you come out of the theatre into the real world! I just love it!

Back in my teenage days I used to go to the cinema every week. This was when you could still catch a movie for 2.50 DM (1.25€), so before 2002. Well, it was also before 3D and you could only see movies which were a few months old, but it was still great! In comparison: I paid 12.50€ last night + 1€ for the 3D glasses. Talk about price increase!

I have to say though, they are really getting the hang of that 3D thing! The first time I watched a 3D movie was about 10 years ago in the IMAX cinema. Back then it was only an underwater documentary and it wasn’t even full feature film length. I was wondering why they didn’t do it for all movies since it was just great, but I guess it was just way more expensive to produce back then. If you are sceptical when it comes to 3D, you should really check it out, it’s quite an experience. I had some real WOW moments, although it was a converted to 3D film and I’ve had quite a few 3D experiences before. I saw a 3D virtual reality lab at the university of Chemnitz, I visited the CAVE virtual reality system in Linz — I think it doesn’t exist anymore —, and I saw a couple of 3D movies when they were still pretty uncommon.

I guess this is the dawn of a new era in film. It must have felt similarly to go see the train coming in one of the first movies of the brothers Lumière (See it here) in 1895 or quite similarly pivotal would be The Jazz Singer, the first real talkie from 1927 (see a scene here). Or is it again only a new 3D craze like the ones in the 50s and 80s? Only time can tell.

In any case, I can’t wait to see a movie properly filmed in 3D. Should be even better!

How did the picture come about? Well, I got lost and went out the wrong end of the station in search of the subway station at Gesundbrunnen. What I like about this bridge is that it looks oddly misshapen at night. Not sure it’s also like that during the day, but with the lighting like this it seems not at all symmetrical although I took the picture standing in the middle of the street.