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The Infanta cinema was located on the old Carretera de Sarrià (now Avenida de Sarrià) 31-33, near the old Plaza de Calvo Sotelo (now Francesc Macià). It had a capacity of 484 spectators.
The name of Infanta was due to its location, at that time close to the Avenida de la Infanta Carlota Joaquina.
Although its promoter, Andreu Clar, had initially planned to inaugurate it on September 24, coinciding with the events scheduled for the Mercè festivities, the appearance of the poster for the bullfighting fair that was advertised in the newspapers by then would be everything. an event that would overshadow him.
Clar was aware that the city would be much more aware of what would take place in the Monumental de Barcelona than what would happen in that other part of the city.
And it is that Balañá had managed that year to hire the number one in the art of spoons in Spain and America to perform in the Monumental: Manuel Rodríguez Manolete and Carlos Arruza, so that they would fight four consecutive afternoons, the bullfights that would be held on the 23rd, 24, 25 and 26 September.
Apart from Manolete and Arruza, they would perform with the rejoneadores Álvaro Domecq and Simao de Veiga and the bullfighters Rafael Ortega, Agustín Parra Parrita and el Choni. On the last afternoon, to give it more morbidity, there would be two crucial confrontations: two hand in hand, one of the rejoneadores and another of Manolete and Arruza (for those who do not know the meaning of hand in hand it was like a football confrontation between eternal rivals, although there was a good friendship between the two bullfighters).
El Infanta was the classic neighborhood movie theater. It was inaugurated on Monday, September 17, 1945, with the obligatory screening of the NO-DO newsreel and the films A tus ordenes señora and Siempre hay una mujer.
It was a time when cinemas suffered from post-war difficulties, since power cuts were frequent in the city and were a problem for film businessmen. When they occurred, the projection of the film was cut off, which forced in summer -since there was no air conditioning- to have to quickly open some windows to air out the projection room and, in winter, for the spectators to bundle up and They could go outside to smoke.
The Infanta, two months after its inauguration, had solved this problem by installing its own generator, which was inaugurated on Saturday, December 1. It started up when the power went out. With this, it was possible to continue with the programming of the film that was being projected and avoided the inconvenience of the spectators and the team of ushers.
That day the billboards highlighted: "Local with its own electrical fluid (A place endowed with the same comfort as the large salons with much higher prices)".
Its owner, a restless man, in order to attract more viewers, devised a programming system for holidays in 1948. Starting the afternoon session with a short program at the price of 3 pesetas, in which the obligatory NO.DO and the main film were projected.
This represented him, that, just by delaying the afternoon session for half an hour, for viewers who were only interested in the main film, they had the afternoon free from five. And so he captured many more viewers.
On September 11, 1957, in the early hours of the morning, a fire broke out in one of the curtains of the premises, barely an hour after the last session had ended-
The quick notification of the employees who were still finishing packing up and the proximity of the Central Fire Station, which arrived quickly with two car bombs, meant that the fire did not get any worse and they did not have to regret personal misfortunes, the insignificant material losses.
But, the recession in customers that many cinemas in the city suffered, forced it to close its doors on Sunday, May 19, 1968 with the screening of Great Coup at the Service of British HM and I Just Killed a Man.
After an important restoration and the renovation of the seats, the Castañé brothers, directors of the Alexandra cinemas, carried out a reform of the premises of about 500 seats, in order to present a cinema with the projection of Essay Art films.
At that time, it was what the intellectual public was asking for, who found in these films, apart from distraction, a different way of taking advantage of their topics of debate. It reopened its doors on January 31, 1969, as the Aquitaine cinema.
The Aquitaine premiered in Spain Lilith, by Robert Rossen, in the original version, interpreted by Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg (Lilith was the woman who left paradise in search of her freedom). This film monopolized the news at that time for the fight of feminism. And he also screened the short film Gloria a Félix Tournachon. The program was not suitable for minors.
But what in principle was an event for the intellectuals of that time, since the company could not find productions by new directors that would attract the viewer, they decided that on December 6, 1972, the film company would take charge of the film programming. cinesa.
On the occasion of the transfer of the programming of the National Film Library to the Generalitat de Catalunya, so that it would become the Film Library of Catalonia, the first location of the headquarters was in Travessera de Gràcia, but the situation was not to the liking of the regional authorities , nor of the spectators, which meant that the authorities of the Generalitat contacted the property of the Aquitaine cinema.
The objective was to sign a rental contract for a period of ten years, in order to later build their own building.
The new location suffered a delay and the Aquitania cinema was operating as a film library for a period of more than 20 years, through which more than 100,000 spectators passed annually.
The inauguration of the Filmoteca in Aquitaine took place on Thursday, November 21, 1991, presided over by the Minister of Culture, Joan Guitart, in which a selection of fragments of historical films were shown.
The official programming for the public took place the following day, in which a cycle dedicated to Zavattini was inaugurated, which included the projection of 64 films, until December 15.
The cycle began with the film Miracle in Milan. Shot in 1951 Vittorio De Sica had also collaborated on the script and among the actors were Francesco Golisano, Emma Gramatica, Paolo Stoppa, Guglielmo Barnabó. Zavattini had died on October 13, 1989.
The Filmoteca was operating in the Aquitaine until December 2011, when it closed as a cinema to carry out a new restoration and become the Aquitaine Theatre.
