The Head of the Saint by Socorro Acioli

Author:Socorro Acioli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

A cinema in Candeia. Nothing at all to do with witchcraft or dark rites. The room had been painted black to provide perfect viewing conditions.

The couple set the opening for a week later. They still needed to arrange the seating, test out the projector and wait for the movies to arrive. On the day of the opening, showings would be free in order to attract a clientele, as a lot of people in the town didn’t even know what a cinema was.

Aécio Diniz didn’t waste a minute: he talked to the couple who owned it, Ary and Thelma, and arranged a partnership whereby he would promote the Cine Rex on his radio programs in exchange for free tickets to give away to listeners.

The cinema would show three movies over the course of a day, to audiences of small children, youths and adults. Despite some cheeky requests and anonymous letters, the couple was quick to announce that Cine Rex was a family establishment and would not be showing pornographic movies.

On the day set for the opening, the line was enormous. The screening room was ready, but there was a serious problem: most of the movies hadn’t arrived. Ary and Thelma tried to explain to the residents that they would have to postpone the opening of Cine Rex. If they opened now, they said, they’d have to show the same movie three times in the same day.

“So be it!” said Madeinusa, who had come for the opening. “What’s the movie called?”

“Casablanca,” replied Thelma. It was her favorite.

From nine in the morning, then, to eight at night, the population of Candeia was transported to Morocco. Men and women of all ages came out of the cinema weeping over the love story of Rick and Ilsa.

Candeia became the world capital of romantic love, of marriages born of love and mad passion. Father Zacarias’s wedding schedule didn’t allow him a moment’s breath. Rich couples and poor, they all came to marry in Candeia.

—

Finally the new movies arrived and Cine Rex was too small for the number of people who wanted to watch them. Even with new movies on offer, the public demanded at least one showing of Casablanca every two days. Ary was in charge of the programming. He had spent his whole life waiting for the day when he could retire from his work and devote himself completely to the cinema, the second-greatest passion of his life. The first was Thelma, his wife. The two of them divided up the cinema duties well. Ary looked after the program and the ticketing. Thelma helped advise Ary on the choice of movies and took care of the snack bar: Thelma’s. Her cooking was a whole other sensation, and Candeia was introduced to an Italian dish that took the town by storm: Thelma’s lasagna.

The only problem was that sometimes Ary got caught up chatting at the door and forgot to charge for tickets. Thelma, meanwhile, so loved the cinema that she would sneak in to watch the movies in secret and leave the lasagna burning in the oven.

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