Abstract

In this article, the virtual reality reconstruction of Udine’s Odeon cinema (1936-2002) provides a case study in New Cinema History and Digital Cultural Heritage, with an example that allows the preservation of the experience of cinema-going using digital media. Both the 3D modeling and the VR storytelling are based on archival materials and oral sources, so that not only the architecture and the interior design are digitally reactivated, but a historically-situated spectatorship is also evoked. The project highlights the potentiality of accessing archives in an immersive, virtual experience, as well as raising certain issues related to the philological rigour demanded by this operation, due to the archives’ heterogeneous and inconsistent nature.