Open-Air Cinemas of Istanbul From the 1950s to Today

Abstract

This article explores open-air cinema spectatorship in Istanbul from the 1950s to the contemporary era. Since the 1990s, literary authors, actors, and film critics have been depicting open-air cinemas in their memoirs with a certain sense of nostalgia. This nostalgic sentiment is largely driven by multiplex cinemas, which have changed the spectatorship experience in Istanbul. Besides the post-1980s urban gentrification that led to the building of multiplexes, Istanbul’s cinema-going urbanites encountered a similar, yet less frequently discussed, experience of urban gentrification around the 1950s. This research first examines how urban gentrification projects caused the disappearance of open-air cinemas after the 1950s. It then explores how today’s nostalgic conception of open-air cinemas was formed, and how it is commodified in the new luxury open-air cinemas in hotels, art centers, and shopping malls.