A cold, gray Monday evening. In Zurich, the recently announced Jelmoli closure (which would correspond to Harrods in London and KaDeWe in Berlin) is a topic of the day with a direct connection to everyday life in the city. A similar melancholy can be felt in the Uto cinema: the owner of the property soon no longer wants to offer the oldest, still existing cinema in the city any new leases.
But two skillful entertainers – the author Benedict Wells (“From the End of Loneliness”) and Christoph Daniel (DCM) give hope right from the start: You can rely on their show “Uto Late” like the orchestra of the Titanic.
The positive mood of the evening is set and continues with entertaining, charming and extremely witty stage talk about film, its heroines (Sofia Coppola’s oeuvre is the focus of this evening) and heroes (Batman of the 60s explains the world of today) to to the absolute highlight of the show: Valeska Steiner from the band Boy on stage together with Christoph Daniel on the guitar. The audience was aware of the moment and enthusiastic.
And then the top-class film quiz – moderated by Rosh Khodabakhsh (DCM) as always – rounds off the successful evening, which the audience enjoys at the cinema bar. Only on the way home does the melancholy described at the beginning catch up with you again. Benedict put it in a nutshell: there will never be another cinema location like the Uto in Zurich – with its rich history since 1927, which inevitably energizes and carries the hall.
All pictures: © Milutin Kostic
