Anyone who drives his sled into Capitol Drive-in on Hillcap Avenue in San Jose, California tonight will see the candy-colored dance romance “Valley Girl” at half past eight or three quarter past eleven. On a big screen, where you always sit foot-free and in the first row: In the USA, unlike in Europe, there is still a noteworthy drive-in tradition, after all, there are still 325 drive-ins open nationwide. But there used to be 4,000.
“Valley Girl” is a typical film for the drive-in cinema. The musical-like love comedy is a remake of the film of the same name with Nicholas Cage from a time when Cage still had full hair. That was in 1983, and the remake also took place in the 80s, noticeable by the hideous perms, the wide sweaters and the kitschy color compositions. The film celebrates this decade, and the drive-in cinema joins in, because that was perhaps the last time it flourished – until today. “Valley Girl” can only be seen on screen in drive-in cinemas in the USA, while the film was also released as a stream at the same time.
Drive-in cinema as a solution
The corona crisis is here, and with it and the lockdown for cinemas halfway around the world, there is a growing need to go out again, get among people and enjoy the community cinema experience. The drive-in cinema is currently the only possible way of enjoying films on the big screen with others. If you believe the experts, the cinemas will not be able to open again before the end of summer – and then only with a very limited number of seats. The drive-in cinema offers the perfect interim solution here: sitting in your own car and bringing in the film sound via the stereo of the car radio, that means enjoying the cinema without direct contact with other people, unless you have to. The drive-in cinema is experiencing a revival in the Corona period, which has made all sorts of terms that are believed to be extinct modern again. “Hamster purchases” for example. Or the term “curfew”. So why shouldn’t the drive-in theater also gain new fame?
Popular drive-ins
From the 1930s, the first drive-in theaters opened in the United States. Drive-ins were particularly popular in the 1950s, at that time the cars were more spacious than they are today and there was no annoying center armrest, so that you could cuddle up lovingly to your loved one. Especially the hip swing time of the rock’n’roll generation loved this cuddle opportunity, the best places for this were in the back row, which was also called “Love Lane”. The drive-ins quickly became a figurehead for American leisure culture, a hallmark of turbo-capitalism that the United States propagated from the end of the Second World War: the open-air cinema was a cool and casual way of talking, but at the same time you had the right of way use the parking lot to present its prestigious Cadillacs, Dodges or Ford Mustangs and thereby impress potential new partners. See what I can have!
Yes, the world was once full of clichés, but let’s be honest: isn’t it the same today? The myth that Hollywood has built up over the decades negotiates such clichés, yes, they are even its motor. Hollywood has always been particularly good at integrating its own myth into its films – and has immortalized the drive-in as part of its DNA. In “Grease” (1978) John Travolta gets a rejection from Olivia Newton-John when he tries to get too close to her in the drive-in cinema. A scene with cult status among the fans. In Jan de Bont’s “Twister” (1996) the F3 tornado rages over a drive-in cinema just as hard as Jack Nicholson chops on the screen in “Shining” with his ax. In Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders”, the protagonists smuggle under a fence onto the cinema area. In “Targets” (1968), the debut of Peter Bogdanovich, Boris Karloff plays an aging actor who made monster films (sic!) And kills a sniper in a drive-in cinema that shoots at the audience.
One of the most beautiful drive-in moments in the film is the scene in “Back to the Future III” (1990), in which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) races with the DeLorean on the screen of a drive-in cinema on the screen below Paintings of Indians riding towards him can be seen. Shortly before the wall, the DeLorean disappears into the past – and lands in the same scenery as the one in the picture – only real Indians ride towards it this time.
The drive-in cinema is an integral part of cinema culture, at least in the United States. It looks a little different in Europe. Although there were drive-in theaters from the 1950s and 1960s, the number was never as high as in the USA, where the distances are naturally greater and drive-in cinemas are therefore a logical consequence.
Pop-up cinemas on the outskirts
After all, there were 40 recorded outdoor screens in West Germany in the mid-1970s that, with a few exceptions, disappeared with the multiplex boom. But since the outbreak of the Corona crisis, the drive-in cinema has been facing an unexpected comeback. More than 40 radio frequencies for sound transmission have been applied for in Germany since March – because resourceful operators are working on new pop-up cinemas on the outskirts or reactivating old venues. Success is great wherever there is still play, as the “Tagesspiegel” reported: The films “Lindenberg!” Were shown in drive-in cinemas in Essen and Düsseldorf. and (fittingly) “The boy has to be shown in the fresh air” in front of a sold-out “house”, with up to 1000 visitors per performance. In Denmark, people want to broadcast ghost games in football stadiums via canvas to the parking lots in front of the stadiums, i.e. to realize a sporty version of the drive-in cinema. In Vilnius, Lithuania, the decommissioned airport was converted into a drive-in cinema – the South Korean Oscar triumphant “Parasite” was shown. There have long been other ideas for the drive-in cinemas: for example, the areas will soon be usable for concerts, and the audience will have to relax in the car seat, because getting out is forbidden.
A new beginning is also pending in Austria: The country’s only drive-in cinema in Groß-Enzersdorf near Vienna finally closed its doors in 2015. In the meantime, however, new operators are working on a restart, which had to be postponed several times due to official requirements. Now there seems to be clarity. “There is good news. The responsible ministry recently announced that the drive-in cinema will open in mid-May,” it said www.autokino.at, the website of the operator. “We are currently working at full speed on the contactless online shop and the cinema program.” The planned start is May 15th.
Will the drive-in cinema now experience a new boom? The persistence of the hype even after the Corona crisis can be doubted, because: The urge of the audience to finally “get out” and to experience a common cultural life is now expressed in those niches that still exist despite the crisis have remained possible. For the time afterwards, the comfortable cinema chair should have the edge. Unless the young people go to the drive-in cinema more often and think about how to level the middle armrest in Papa’s BMW.
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