Favourite Cinema

[clarion]

Prompted by a discussion on the '...Last Film...' thread, and a post by citoyen, I was reflecting on how the bland 'americanified' multiplex experience has put me off going to see films.

I though it would be good to hear what people's favourite cinemas are.  Is it that marvellous Art Deco masterpiece?  Or a cinema club?  Or even could it be one of those multiplexes themselves, with their air conditioning, and decent legroom?

Personally, my favourite was in the basement of a concrete city centre block - the Anvil Civic Cinema in Sheffield.  Started as a private concern in about 1970, the Council took it over in 1983.  I saw loads of films there at cheap matinees, sometimes going off to work afterwards.  Loads of foreign films, old films, cult films and the very occasional big movie.  I even worked there for a bit.  Sadly, it closed in 1990

My current favourite is another civic venue, but rather different in style.  It's the Hebden Bridge Picture House.  Great atmosphere, and a good mix of arty films and kids stuff etc, as you might expect for HB.

Special mention for the cinema I've probably been to most (apart from the Anvil): Hyde Park Picture House.  Contrary to any London-centric expectations, this is situated in the Hyde Park area of Leeds.

So, over to you: What is the venue where you most feel at home and want to go back to again and again for a really good cinema experience?

[LEE]

"Raleighwood", Raleigh, North Carolina.

Waitress service of Beer and food to your table whilst watching the film. It's basically a Diner with a big screen.
It was also very cheap to watch films there (15 years ago, things may have changed).

I saw "Pulp Fiction" twice while I was there, the perfect place to watch that film.  Not quite "Jack Rabbit Slims" but better than the Multiplex experience.

[Basil]

I don't do cinema much, but I do like The Electric Cinema in Birmingham. 
Book a sofa.  You also get waitress service from the bar. 

[Hot Flatus]

Tushinski theatre in Amsterdam

[clarion]

That's a bit different, LEE.  Wonder whether there'd be a market for that over here? EDIT: Seems there is @Basil

I was just reflecting, after posting this, why the cinema itself makes any sort of difference, when the main part of the filmgoing experience is sitting in the dark for an hour and a half or so.

[Jaded]

The Screen Machine



Way more inclusive than any building.

[RJ]

Here in Edinburgh, I like the Filmhouse and Cameo.

Fond memories too of the Grosvenor in Glasgow.

[Ian H]

Cinema Listings | Exeter Picturehouse | Exeter

My favourite down here.

[clarion]

The Screen Machine looks like a cool idea.

I like the use of 'other' spaces for cinema.

I worked as a projectionist at the Dukes Cinema, as part of my role at the Dukes Playhouse, Lancaster.  York Arts Centre had a 16mm projector and a screen, but wasn't showing anything when I was working there.  However, there were screenings at the Museum at the time, which was a good venue.  The big church hall round the corner from us has a regular cinema night (but I've not been )

[PaulF]

Now sadly closed but the one in Whitstable was great - comfy seats and you could bring drinks in

[CAMRAMan]

Cinema City in Norwich was fantastic when I was at UEA. In the 2nd year, I lived in student halls just down the road, so it was reet handy. I saw Ai No Corrida there for £1.10; surely the cheapest smutty deal ever? It was in a converted church building and had a wholefood cafe tagged onto it that also sold Crone's cider.

The Electric Cinema in Brum that Basil mentions is also good. The best time I had there was a whole day watching the Three Colours trilogy, Blue, White, then Red. I haven't been since they did it up, but it can't have changed much.

The Prince Charles cinema just off Leicester Square is an oasis of sanity & taste compared to the commercially priced offerings on the Square.

[Salvatore]

Th Aaben, Hulme, Manchester. It was a fairly run-down place in the middle of an area considered not particularly safe for walking at night, but in the late 70s it was the only cinema in Manchester showing foreign language films, or indeed anything which wasn't the latest Hollywood blockbuster, so I used to go anyway. Closed in the 1990s.

Hyde Park Cinema, Leeds (as mentioned above).

Fritz-Walter-Kinozentrum, Kaiserslautern. I was a regular there in 1977/78. 3 screens - one showing adult stuff, one showing minority interest arty films, and a third which showed more popular commercial films. The latter was something like LEE's "Raleighwood", with seats in pairs with a table, lamp, menu and button to press which magically summoned a waitress. All owned by the legendary Fritz Walter.

[clarion]

You remind me of the Cornerhouse in Manchester.  Nice cafe, good atmosphere.  Abysmal sound quality. 

[Greenbank]

The HMV Curzon cinema on the top floor of the HMV in Wimbledon is quite good but probably not for the same reasons that many of the others are being suggested.

I saw Wall Street there at the parent and baby screening. No screaming children as is was just me, my wife and my daughter (and she was asleep for most of it).

It might also have something to do with having a bar and, when there are so few people there, pretty much waiter service (they even paused the film when my wife went to the toilet so that she didn't miss anything).

[Sergeant Pluck]

In London, Somerset House is a great outdoor venue for a movie:

http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/film/default.asp

Lovely on a warm summer evening.

Indoors, the Chelsea Cinema on King's Road is fab:

http://www.curzoncinemas.com/venues/chelsea

[The Seldom Killer]

Cinema Listings | Exeter Picturehouse | Exeter

My favourite down here.

That's about my favourite as well. I remember when it opened, it was like a godsend compared to the Odeon. A nice bar, nice comfortable layout for the screens and a really good, mixed programme.

I attended an improptu screening of a skate video in High Park in Toronto once. The screen was slung between two trees and the projection and seating was from an open fronted yurt with an array of rugs, cushions and Morrocan day beds. Food and drink laid on. It doesn't get much better than that.

[citoyen]

the tiny cinema downstairs in the Soho Hotel is amazing. ... seating is rows of very comfy sofas-for-two.

I've obviously misremembered it - this is what it looks like: THE SOHO HOTEL

(There were definitely somes sofas. Just not as many as I remember.)

d.

[clarion]

The Kino sounds like a cool venue, and somewhere otherwise quite badly served by cinema.  I guess the nearest would be in Tunbridge Wells.

[clarion]

The Ultimate Picture Palace.

Quirky doesn't come close to describing the experience. They've recently added a small bar at the back too.

The link's a bit odd.  It says 'near Camberwell SE15', but it's of an Oxford venue.

[mattc]

The Ultimate Picture Palace.

Quirky doesn't come close to describing the experience. They've recently added a small bar at the back too.

The link's a bit odd.  It says 'near Camberwell SE15', but it's of an Oxford venue.

Well Oranj is much nearer to Oxford, so I assume it's this one:
Ultimate Picture Palace | Cinema, Jeune Street, Oxford, UK
(just off Cowley Road, Oxford)

[Kim]

The Gulbenkian at the University of Kent in Canterbury is good. It used to be a lecture theatre that doubled up as a cinema in the evenings, which made watching a film there a very weird experience, but it's now a dedicated cinema and they've refurbished it with proper plush seats.

It had a better quality of seats than most of the other lecture theatres, which made it rather good for sleeping through dull lectures, too.

I've not been since it was refurbished.

While we're on the UKC theme, Rutherford Lecture Theatre 1 deserves honourable mention.  While not actually a cinema, and generally lacking in the seat comfort department, its data projection equipment was hijacked by a crack team of AnimeSoc ninjas on a weekly basis.  I spent many a happy evening in the company of, well - let's be honest here, the Computer Science department - quietly eating junk food while watching endless episodes of Ranma 1/2 in "pixels the size of Allan's head" RealVideo.


The best mainstream cinema I've used with any regularity has been *googles* the Orpheus in Stoke Bishop, Bristol.  Small enough that the guy behind the ticket window ducks back to sell you popcorn as you walk through the foyer, and - most importantly - the sound and projection are adjusted properly by real humans.  Lovely seats too.

Since I've been with barakta I've been to the cinema a lot less for lack-of-subtitles reasons.  Mostly just forrin arthouse stuff.

[hellymedic]

I don't do cinema much but saw 'Wetherby' at the Hyde Park Picture House, in which it features, a very long time ago.
The Phoenix in East Finchley is pretty good too but I don't like the new furnishings.

[Exit Stage Left]

I reckon a good cinema is about good sound, so the Empire Leicester Square.
Sound Technology   | Empire Leicester Square

[benborp]

When were you at the Duke's Clarion?

[clarion]

1987.  I did the lighting design for the first promenade production in Williamson's Park  - A Midsummer Night's Dream.