The end of the silver screen and movie projector

The movie Cinema Paradiso (1988) depicts the story of deep friendship between a young boy nicknamed Toto and Alfredo, theater’s projectionist, at a small village of Italy in the 1940s. The movie is particularly renowned for the last scene with its beautiful theme song. Toto, who later became a filmmaker, shed tears while watching the "kissing scenes" montage that Alfredo left. As the local priest had ordered these sections censored, Alfredo made the deleted scenes as a film for Toto.

The principle of movie is to shine an intense light through the film of consecutive scenes while viewing them rapidly. Some movies are produced digitally and do not have original films these days. However, the screen and projector have not changed since the brothers Lumiere invented cinematography in 1895. The screen should be bright with dark surroundings to see a movie. The term silver screen comes from the actual silver (or similarly reflective aluminum) content embedded in the material that made up the screen’s highly reflective surface.

A movie theater is also good for dates. Edward Hall, the cultural anthropologist, defined the distance of relationship as four zones. He said that the intimate distance for embracing, toughing or whispering should be less than 18 inches (about 45.7 centimeters). To remove psychological barriers, it is better to sit side by side than sitting face to face. That is why a man and woman in an awkward relationship become intimate after watching a movie at theater. The darkness of theater is also good to create the mood for love.

On Friday, Samsung has opened a new era of movie without silver screens and projector as the LED screen emits lights, by launching the world’s first cinema LED display. According to Samsung, the screen is sharper and reflects more realistic colors than movie projectors and it is also possible to see movies while turning on the light. People may expect to use the screen for cheering groups or movies for children. Still, it is a pity that we cannot enjoy the unique mood that a shine light presents at a dark theater.