kapedag      2112    traduzioni

It's a short story that I published over 15 years ago and that I recovered for MLS, happy reading.  

The most absurd thing are the bathrooms, or rather the bathroom. Yes, because there is only one, that of men: the builders of the beginning of the century have well thought that women do not go to those cinemas or they do it only to get sodomized by groups of customers, precisely in the common bathrooms. Already at the door you can feel the stench of piss mixed with semen that covers the floor and that has created abundant puddles with the trampling; the door is in tatters, drilled and unhinged in such a way as to allow you to see the urinal from the sink opposite. The unlikely colors of low-cost tiles, almost all chipped and partly detached, reflect the light of a 40 watt lamp hanging from the ceiling with only the electric cable and are decorated with writings such as "35 year old mounts looking for a slave" or " gifted bisexual single for wives in heat "; I read the funniest one in a cinema in Milan "fucking in the ass doesn't make children but it hurts if you take it".   Outside the bathroom there is a corridor that runs along the perimeter of the room, in the dim light facilitated by the very poor lighting, you can see male silhouettes leaning against the wall looking at you quickly to understand if you are leaving the bathroom still "fit" or if you have satisfied your sexual needs alone or with a friend; in the latter case, they mentally exclude you from the list of possible prey. Sometimes along these corridors there are also brownish, filthy and stinking of mold armchairs ... ... there are also those who sit there!   The projection room is beyond a dark and heavy curtain, also quite dirty because people clean their hands after using the bathroom, because the last time it was taken to the dry cleaners dates back to the visit of the n.a.s. but above all for the constant opening and closing work to which it is subjected… .and yes! In porn cinemas there are very few people sitting there: everyone circulates and the perimeter corridors are the freeways of this lively town square. Another feature of hard cinemas is the fact that they constitute the evolution - or involution depending on the point of view - of venues that were once built with an abundance of means for official cinema and even more so for the theater; this determines an internal architecture that I would define as a "fascist" style with widespread marble, very high ceilings, wide corridors and stairs, essential but valuable woods and finishes, only the services are bare bones. Just look at the Odeon cinema in Milan or the Ambassadors in Rome to understand that the audience the rooms were intended for is not the one who frequents them; the only drawback are the armchairs which, in terms of comfort, are affected by the construction season still not inspired by ergonomics criteria and whose coatings have been modified over time to adapt them to the new clientele who use them to end the evening worthily. The floors, then, are a spectacle of trash: the dark color of the marbles or tiles, completely out of fashion and often reconstructed with partially different materials and colors, together with the scarcity of lighting means that in the intervals you have the feeling of being in a garage. The smokiness of the environment, despite the luminescent plastic prohibition signs on the sides of the disproportionate screen, the external presence of the residues of the "standard" renovations of the systems, the widespread smell of "old", the humidity of the environment that remains cool even in summer, all contribute to defining an almost palpable sensation. And if you are curious to see the "gallery" you have to go only to "porn"; although it has often been closed for security reasons, it remains a unique experience, having become room 2 or 3 of the multiplex complex of the other cinemas.   The red light venues that populated all the municipalities of the peninsula have been literally swept away by progress, in particular by the internet that offers the product on sale: a symbol of the commodification of sex and the degradation of cinema with a capital "c", celebrated from Oscar-winning films, they hardly exist anymore and if you want to know the addresses of the survivors you have to call Scotland Yard because not even the local newspapers publish them anymore. The patrons are "insiders", it is difficult to happen by chance and I would divide them into two categories: gay and straight / bisexual. The decadent and decidedly underground environment has favored the influx of homosexuals in these rooms; in fact, despite the proliferation of clubs for gays in all cities, they continue to be the true masters of red light cinemas. The absence of internal controls allows him to meet, know and even consume relationships in the enclosure of the room; the latent exhibitionism or aimed at the approach of gay patrons is fully satisfied by the configuration of the projection room and bathrooms which constitute a maze of ravines and curves. The young hustlers of the East are a sure source of pleasure that is always available. There are also transsexuals and crossdressers; you see them enter into jeans and a T-shirt then, as soon as it gets dark, they change into colorful bodices and dresses that wrap around their prosperous body leaving nothing to the imagination. They not infrequently work there so they are quite hated by the owners who tolerate them but do not fail to make disruptive "pieces". In the dining room, the effect that the presence of a transsexual produces is one of sure excitement, at the same time tempered by the repugnance of some transvestites who are real hairy males with lipstick. What are heterosexuals going to do in a porn cinema? Answering this question with another question may seem inappropriate but I will do it anyway. Who is over thirty-five and has never entered? With friends for a goliard, in the military, with friends to see dream dimensions and times laughing over it or when you have realized that in addition to Rock Hudson, Rocco from the big brother is also Rocco Siffredi. When I say "cinema" I don't mean "film", everyone aged 16 and over has seen a hard film, once between cassettes and satellites today on the web but many young people do not even know that red light theaters exist. The disappearance of those cinemas is not a consequence of the lack of demand for the product but, much more simply, of the political choice to close consumption at home, which is also constantly on the rise. Hard cinema, red light, porn celebrated as an icon of the lover of auto-eroticism in disguise - I remember Fantozzi who went to see "le Casalingue" where everyone had the newspaper open to hide their faces - constituted the Italic transgression of the 70s Those who continue to go there today do so to meet; the hope of finding easy and enormously transgressive sex, not fake, rarefied or glossy like in private clubs or lap dances. All that happens in there is pure transgression, love of risk, desire for submission: fucking in the filthy bathroom, giving a blowjob on a chair strewn with stains of stale semen, being on the hands of ten men already aroused by the starlet of turn that performs on the screen in frightening contortions ... ... many people dream of being protagonists in such episodes. Guys today stroke of luck! A couple in the room… seeing a woman in a red light cinema is not easy; the scene we witness is always the same. They sit at the back, she checks the status of the chair, he doesn't care enough. It doesn't matter if the woman is old, young, thin or fat, the migration to that area of ​​the cinema slowly begins, very soon the side chairs, front and back are occupied by men who casually watch the film without sparing fleeting inquiring glances to understand if under the heavy and long coat there is more, or only the stockings that emerge from the bottom of the garment to slip into ten centimeters of heel with an ankle band. Generally, no one sits in the next chair, we prefer to wait for an act of consent in order to avoid the gesture involving a change of place by the couple, which in turn would cause the anger of the "colleagues". And if the couple does not sit down it's even better, the message is very clear in a few minutes she is on her knees with at least five or six naked men from the waist down around them who masturbate vigorously.  

Damn, I've been in here for two hours, better go out and get home!   The sun of a hot July day envelops me and dazzles me, with a brisk step I open the window in front of the booth of the ticket-clerk slumped on the chair with a blank stare and I find myself in the street ... ... in the morning of course.