Best place to beat the heat: Kino Palace

Post photo by Dima Gavrish
Three's company when it comes to finding refuge at Kino Palace from the heat of Kyiv's streets

After a long and trying winter that just wouldn't give way to spring, much less summer, the warm weather has finally arrived - with a vengeance. The Best Of team is sweating it out with the rest of you. We have the windows open, the fans at full bore, and 73 air-conditioner requisition forms in the company mail. But until the day when we can cool our heels in front of a Fern-filled miracle of modern technology, we'll continue to beat the heat in the cool confines of our favorite movie house.
While Hydropark is fine for a sun-and-sand fix and the Dnipro never fails to cool you down, the hustle and bustle of weekend crowds can get you hot - and not only under the collar. The dark, quiet confines of a movie theater are summer balm for the body and the soul.
So when the concrete jungle becomes too much to take, we wearily climb up Institutes to Kino Palace.
While other theaters have their advantages, Kino Palace combines the benefits of a modern movie theater with the atmospheric elements of an historical movie palace. Venues such as Kino panorama and Durham remain mired in the aesthetics and technology of the Soviet era. And while theaters like Dom Kino and Zhovten show a greater range of quality films they, too, are of the crumbling auditorium variety. The new Ukraine is the high-water mark for quality sound, comfortable chairs and climate control. However, its high-tech look tends to be bit sterile for our taste.
The "Cinema Palace" is appropriately named not simply because it is located in the meticulously maintained, neo-classical Institute of Culture. It has managed to appropriate the architectural frills and ornaments of early-century architecture and combine them with the technological advances necessary to appreciate the big-budget fare it tends to show. The net result is an old school, movie-palace experience with all the comfort and convenience of a modern structure.
Its main hall has been beautifully renovated with large, red-velvet seats, enormous chandeliers, deep-blue walls trimmed with white columns, an enormous screen and a large, shadowy balcony. This is also the "get intimate with your significant other" venue.
So, then, not only can the Best Of team beat the heat under the silver screen, we can also spend some quality time chilling with our dates - before heading home and getting all hot and bothered again.