The
Volta Cinema was
Dublin's first
movie theatre. It opened on December 20, 1909
at 45 Mary Street and is significant because
James Joyce, Irish author
of
Ulysses and
Finnegans Wake, was a partner in the venture at the age of 27.
In fact, cashing in on this revolutionary concept in entertainment was totally
Joyce's idea, though his partners owned other cinemas in Europe.
Joyce was teaching English in Trieste at the time, struggling to write,
and desperately in need of cash.
The Volta Cinema was very popular at first, but within nine months it began to
lose money, possibly because Joyce had agreed to manage the project, yet
remained in Trieste, already a slave to his embryonic muse. The partners sold the
business at a loss.
For the rest of his life, Joyce was fascinated by the idea of cinema. The
holographically visual quality of much of his prose, particularly in
Finnegans Wake, where there are also many film references,
is a testament to his dedication to forging a "new" art form, something beyond
words on paper, something more akin to what we have come to call noding.
Shades of Joyce:
a nice cool glass of Joyce
Anna Livia Plurabelle
Cashel Boyle O'Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall Farrell
Finnegans Wake
Finn MacCool
Garry Owen
HCE
Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker
Issy the Teenage Rainbow
June 16, 2001
Lucia Joyce
Mina Purefoy
Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress
riverrun
Shaun
Shem the Penman
Ulysses is not pornography
Volta Cinema