The truly amazing crystalline ceiling of the #CapitolTheatreMelbourne, #WalterBurleyGriffin and wife #MarionMahoneyGriffin going for it with a plaster extravaganza of indirect light effects. Cinemas in the 1920s were all about #spectacle, as much a part of the experience as the silent movies and the orchestra and often an organ too (the Capitols is at the Dendy Brighton). BUT this is only one anywhere that went for a totally abstract cave-like effect, everyone else went for Spanish courtyard or Versailles Palace grandeur. It looks like it should be some #GermanExpressionistCinema thing, but it’s actually designed by an American who was really into the spirits of the earth, part of the #Theosophist moment, a bit wacky, but never mind ! Hmm the closest theatres are the long demolished #GrossesSchauspielhaus in Berlin, and the #TheatreTuschinski in Amsterdam.

Hero shot of the #dresscircle lounge of the #CapitolTheatreMelbourne, so lucky it’s still here, or rather congrats to sue (I forget the surname) at #heritagevictoria who made sure this space was part of the cinema title when the building was #stratatitled in the 90s, and @rmituniversity for then buying it, and removing the concrete floor than divided this into two (😮) in the early 2000s, and then fully restored it over the last few years, both times employing @sixdegreesarchitects. #WalterBurleyGriffin and #MarionMahonyGriffin decided to create a fab steppy crystalline ceiling, another headache for light globe replacement, but now #LEDlights have fixed that problem. This was the lounge area only for those who paid more for the better balcony seats, but now everyone gets to see it ! Including that amazing orange and black carpet rewoven from various found fragments.

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