The lights go out, the smell of popcorn, the screen advising you to turn on silent mode on your mobile phone, the progression of the plot, the end credits and, sometimes, the applause that follows right in front of the exit door. Frames of watching a movie in its natural environment: a cinema.

Images that are forgotten after the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of streaming. Images that filmmakers – perhaps against the times – replicate in their current or older work to evoke a sense of nostalgia and capture this enchanting experience.

While industry analysts and moviegoers are concerned about declining theater attendance, worldwide box office receipts have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, according to the Los Angeles Times. But recent cinematic projects are meant to remind us of a time when photo labs were a rite of passage for many.

Cinema: An Unrivaled Collective Experience

In some of the first scenes of his new film Steven Spielberg “Fabelmans”, a married couple takes their young son to the movies for the first time. It’s early 1950s New Jersey, USA, and in a packed movie theater, audiences are about to watch Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth about life in the circus.

Little Sam Fableman, a character based on Spielberg himself as a child, sits and watches in awe, wide-eyed. This is a pivotal moment in the director’s original story, a moment that later shaped his personal and professional life. As Sam grows older, so does his love for movies.

Another film that is expected to be released soon in Greek cinemas with the theme of the seventh art is “Babylon» written and directed Damien Sazel. In the center is the transition from silent to sound films. This is aided by references to films such as The Jazz Singer (1927) and Singing in the Rain (1952).

Then “Empire of Light”, whose story follows the workers of a seaside cinema in Britain, is about human interaction with the “miracle” of the big screen.

Far from being melodic, these films – with a possible presence at this year’s Oscars – focus on the collective experience of watching with strangers.

Of course, the romance of cinema has been captured in films of the past. Like OscarCinema Paradise” since 1988. The filmmaker recalls the cinema and the projector he admired at a young age, when he lived in a small village in Italy and was inspired to get into filmmaking.

AT “last show(“The Last Picture Show”) in 1971, which won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, the only movie theater in the city in crisis, is preparing to close with the film “Red River”. AT “Ed Wood» (1994), about Tim Burton sent him Johnny Depp who played the mediocre but stubborn director Ed Wood, who made films in 1950s Hollywood.

“Hugo(2012) by Martin Scorsese incorporates historical elements as he essentially winks at pioneering filmmaker and inventor Georges Méliès, including details from his life.

A holiday of youth, friendship and the eternal magic of cinema. Cinema Paradiso will open today at 15:10. Restored in 4K.

Book: https://t.co/ZQFHHpOV9F pic.twitter.com/YpxClDLRFh

— Queen’s Cinema (@QFTBelfast) January 7, 2023

Sure, platforms like Netflix and Disney+ deliver content quickly and easily, but they may be doing a disservice to what was originally intended for the movie screen. And that’s where these films “stride”: into charm, as soon as the lights turn on again.