The Ariston turns 60. An institution for Sanremo inaugurated in 1963 by Vacchino family that has always represented cinema in the city of flowers, starting from the area of Sanremo that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. In the golden years of film there were also other cinemas owned by other houses, such as the Supercinema, the Lux, the Astra and the Orfeo.
The crisis then led to the closure of several cinemas and for some years the cinema has been represented by the Vacchino family, which has 6 cinemas in the Ariston Palace, in addition to Centrale and Tabarin. Just to celebrate the birthday, Ariston decided to do it with the public: “We imagined three strands. The first is the cinematic one, especially between films in language and for schools, to give the city of Sanremo a sense of internationality. Then we have an editorial part and publish the sixth Ariston’s notebook (2006-2010) and then it will be the turn of the seventh (2013-2016). We want to recognize the work of everyone who participated in this lengthy summary of events including theatre, sporting events, entertainment, music and more.”
For his 60th birthday, Ariston is offering a series of shows until June 1st with Checco Zalone, Panariello, Beppe Grillo, Cattelan and many others to get to Massimo Ranieri’s concert: “He is a personal friend of Ariston and he can embody him Neapolitan and Italian music with the festival. It is the banner of enthusiasm, joy in life, singing and dancing. His life is the stage and I don’t think it could have been celebrated better.”
The Ariston offers a Series of works in June and July, with the projectors transformed with laser light while changing the air conditioning “Roof”. Between music and comedy shows return in August.
A reminder of his father Aristide, would he have expected all this? “It all starts with grandparents Carlo and Emilia with the ‘Sanremese’ in the early 1900s. Then my parents moved on, but I would like to mention the project with a 2,000-seat theater, 7 cinemas and a hotel to create a real tourist center. Then came the first real “multiplex” instead, as the Ariston had joined the Ritz, the Standa department stores, and the open-air cinema. Then followed the transformation into the “roof” to give space to the festival. But I think my father would have expected that because he wanted a large cinema for many events, which he ran until the 1980s. He saw the festival move to the Ariston and felt satisfied that what had been achieved could be important to the family and the city. Now we have the most important national popular and multimedia theater in Italy”.