Movie Theater, whatever happened to the old porn movie theaters in downtown Rio? How do they heroically resist the competition of films in VCR and DVD format?
Why did they adopt new screening programming, migrating from the old sex and karate double features to the current attractions, which still draw in large crowds?
Troubled by these questions I invited a girl friend to visit two traditional poeiras (shabby movie theaters), Cine Rex at Cinelândia and Cine Íris on Carioca Street.
I met with Mme N in front of Amarelinho bar in Cinelância at 4:30 PM. When she found out what we were going to cover that day, she insisted to join me for the journey.
“An anthropological study,” she justifies. We headed for the Cine Rex, located in a narrow, light traffic, stone-paved street next to the Rival Theatre. No specific film titles on the billboard, it just announced ‘Porn Films.’
A small staircase leads us to the box-office that had a sign with the ticket price, R$ 8.00, no half price admittance available and no line, either. Apprehensive, Mme N hands the tickets to the clerk who strangely warns us that if we have any kind of problem to please let him know, which makes her even more uneasy.
In we go. An old, worn out curtain separates the small entrance hall from the screening room. We walk into absolute darkness.
When our vision starts to adapt to darkness, we notice that there are several people just standing there and others walking up and down the corridors.
An American porn movie is being screened and the place smells stale.
We decide to look for empty seats but we still aren’t fully adapted to darkness, which makes us lose contact for a while, the perfect opportunity, she would later tell me, for a flurry of eager hands to attempt contact with her body.
A lot of activity in the seats
We sit in a row where only one other person is seated. Now we can observe active come and go, much more intense than we expected. There is frantic activity in the corridors and in the rows of seats. Every now and then a passerby will get an open invitation and relax for a while.
That’s just a manner of speech because this is not a place where people are seeking relaxation. I decide to go for a walk, accompanied by Mme N, of course. In our short stroll we noticed several couples of men having oral sex and masturbating one another.
No one seems to be bothered when they catch us watching. Some of them even seem to enjoy it. A transvestite is also taking his little stroll ahead of us in the corridor.
The movie theatre is crowded but not packed and the audience is mostly masculine, with the exception of one or two “girls”, who also take their strolls.
There are no predominant age groups. There are old, middle age and young men that are fat, skinny, short or tall, wearing suits or T-shirts and shorts, most of them carrying briefcases or backpacks. Nobody wastes too much time talking.
We decide to sit down again. This time three moviegoers come and sit close to us. One of them, seated in our row two seats away, is staring at us, despite the darkness, Mme N warns me that the other two are seated in the seats behind us but are making no attempt to contact us. Nobody bothers us.
We sit close to the bathroom, where most of the activity seems to be happening. The white light coming from the bathroom shines on an unattractive young man, wearing jeans, smoking and caressing his own naked chest.
Every now and then he disappears into the bathroom, accompanied by someone. While we observe all the activity around us, Mme N points out to the fact that the man sitting beside us is masturbating fiercely and looking at us every now and then to see if we are watching his performance.
The men behind us also seem to be very active. As we are deciding at what time we should leave the movie theatre, Mme N feels some sort of liquid squirt her arm. Grimacing she asks me if we can leave.
We walk swiftly and on our way out the doorman stares at us oddly. Notice, Mme N was wearing jeans and a discrete, white blouse.
We head to our second destination, located a couple of blocks from Cinelândia, and arrive there at approximately 6 PM. Cine Íris is one of the most beautiful and traditional movie theatres in Rio de Janeiro.
For years, its blend of decadence and beauty made it a perfect venue for the most famous loud alternative parties in Rio that attracted hundreds of kids to its three floors.
The erotic movies screened on weekdays and live shows in between sessions (still) make the venue a profitable enterprise. Admission, the same as at Cine Rex, costs R$ 8.00.
We go inside. The hall’s ‘backdrop’ is impressive. The imposing, white marble and cast iron staircase leads to the upper floors. An old curtain separates us from the screening room that is more illuminated and has a very high ceiling. The seats are also more comfortable.
We sit in a row in the middle of the screening room and notice the same fauna we had just seen downtown in the corridors, most of them also carrying backpacks or briefcases.
The movie theatre’s corridors are the favorite hotspots for the voyeurs, who casually masturbate watching men making out in the seats. Some are discrete and others are less.
The same as at Cine Rex, the audience is mostly made up of men, except for transvestites here and there, who are also looking for ‘invitations’. Two rows down, two guys are having intercourse, or at least that’s what their movements suggest.
When the siren goes off the live show begins
Moviegoers have casual sex, apparently a bit less savagely than at Cine Rex, when a siren goes off. Some spectators quickly rise from their seats and head for the exit.
Could it be the police? Then an excerpt of Carmina Burana starts playing quite loud and six spotlights are lit, three on each side of the screening room, to light up the stage.
A mirrored globe projects light fragments all over the screening room, creating a surreal atmosphere. A voluptuous mulata walks on stage, still in her clothes, to the sound of a Sandy e Júnior song.
Both the dubbing and her performance remind us of Pablo in Silvio Santos’ show.
When the second song, by Vanessa Camargo, starts playing, the mulata starts performing a strip-tease, rapidly taking off the few clothes she was wearing.
The whole act lasts less than six minutes, if that long. The dance routine is the usual in any strip-tease act. Panties sliding back and forth along her crotch, mimicking a dental floss.
Two metal poles, on either side of the stage, are used as props in the girls’ performances. One of the girls, naked, performs an inverted grand-ecart. The stunt is observed closely by an enthusiastic big Negro.
The act is more of the same. The girls embarrassingly sing over a romantic ballad. The clothes, of course, are minute. The girls’ figures vary in style. Some are quite skinny.
Others are plump. Mme N compares one of the girls’ faces to Frida Khalo’s because of the thick down along the area in between her nose and her upper lip.
Our ‘Frida’ compensates her awkwardness with her disinhibition. At the climax of her act she goes down to the audience and teases a young man sitting in the first rows.
Rawly sensuous she rubs her body on the young man’s, without provoking any excitement among the bystanders.
Following the show’s eight acts the lights suddenly go off and the ‘traffic’ inside the screening room resumes, its bathroom as equally attractive as Cine Rex’s.
I decide to visit the bathroom to check what’s inside. There are two urinals to the left occupied by two men and two toilets in the back, occupied by four men, two in each, two pairs of sneakers pointing in the same direction, suggesting the local activity. I pretend to wash my hands and leave the bathroom.
Once again I take a seat next to Mme N. Before we leave, she suggests we visit the movie theatre’s mezzanine, where we get a glimpse of some people inside. Several moviegoers are seated in plastic chairs, the kind you see in bars. Nobody is making out.
At least we can’t see because it was also very dark in here. I suggest to Mme N that we take a seat in two empty chairs. But suddenly she notices that the guy next to her is nonchalantly whacking away.
He doesn’t even notice us. We realize that the place is a ‘jerkoffodrome,’ everyone, literally, holding their dicks. Enough! We decide to call it a day and walk down the stairs that lead to Carioca Street.
More precisely to Bar Luiz, where we will be able to digest our ‘anthropological study.’
