I found this page with Athens cinemas with a long history. Many of them are closed now and the others have completely changed. When I was young I watched hundreds of exploitation films at Rex (1&2) and Inteal (downtown) and at some others in Haladri (missing from this page :( ). I also watched my first XXX films at Alaska. Those were times !!
http://www.cinefilip.gr/gr_athina_001.htm

I lived across the street from KARMEN
( http://www.cinefilip.gr/gr_athina_027_KARMEN.htm ), I could see the posters from my balcony. Once I did not want to leave on summer vacation because I did not want to miss THE LAST DRAGON. I would watch anything, mostly ninja and martial arts films as well as european comedies with Luis De Fines and Adriano Celedano. The films I remember the most are AMERICAN NINJA and FLASHPOINT, an action thriller with Kris Kristopherson as a border cop. Lots of explosions and I think there was some nudity which was always great then(as it is now). I was so young that I was not admitted into ROBOCOP and LETHAL WEAPON and I was afraid to go see Fulci's HOUSE AT THE CEMETARY (with the immortal greek title that translated as HAUNTED VILLA FOR RENT NEXT TO THE CEMETARY) and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD(ZOMBIES ARE NO VEGETERIANS).

You're a lucky guy !!
But it seems you should born a decade before :P

I had a look at the page and it looks interesting, but, uh, it's rather difficult (=impossible) to read your Greek characters :P

Which one is the Rex?

Btw just out of curiosity; how many of you at this board are from Athens/Greece??



Jack

REX is the only one in English on the page :)
In the basement was the cinema CINEAK. After some years (I don't really know when) their names changed as REX 1 & REX 2.

Nice find!
I went to "Angela" a few times.
"Radio city" too, it is now supermarket Sklavenitis (!)
Most old cinemas were turned into garage- parkings.
Someone should write about the xxx cinemas

FFS, I must be going blind!



JJ

A wonderful page. It took me many years back, Miltos. But I wish the photos were from 70s and 80s and not so old! But as I said is a wonderful page!
I was in Rex-es and Ideal all day so I'm sure we met each other sometimes. Golden times!
I've seen hundreds of great films there, Fulci, Argento, Joe D'Amato, Mattei, zombies, cannibals, Ilsa, nazi camp movies. Hundreds of films. The only cult director I've never seen was Jess Franco. Did you see any Franco films?
How poor we are today! My DVD player and my TV is here but they cannot replace those theaters :(

Yeah, the same here; Copenhagen and every middle sized city (in Denmark) had a good number of cinemas that showed many of the genre films we now hunt down on dvd. Now they've been turned into parking lots or Aldis. So sad. :(





Jack