London’s Secret Cinemas
The days of sticky floors, spilled popcorn and dark small screens are well and truly over. The latest trend in cinema puts you right at the heart of the action…after all, who wants to watch a movie when you can experience one?
Popping up in an unusual space near you, the newest breed of cinemas are a mile away from your neighbourhood multiplex.
Hailed as the new king of experiential cinema, Secret Cinema was set up in 2007 by Fabien Riggall, a film producer also behind the short-film label Future Shorts.
Movieogers are kept in the dark about the film they’ll be seeing – cryptic emails confirming a meeting place and required costume hit email inboxes ahead of time, and on the appointed day and hour brave moviegoers are met by costumed characters and led to a secret location. Secret Cinema often stage their events in stately homes, public spaces or other unusual venues.
Once there, it’s time to abandon all reservations as you’re plunged into the world of the movie itself before settling down to watch it.
At screenings of Lawrence of Arabia last month, 15,000 lucky souls entered a custom-designed Arabian tent – complete with camels, haggling market traders, drunken British soldiers and more. After enjoying a hookah, trading furiously with chattering ‘locals’ and gorging on some Arabian food and wine, it was time to lean back on Bedouin cushions and watch the 1962 David Lean epic.
All we can say is that it was absolutely a night to remember – and we can’t wait to book tickets for the December dates!
In other alternative film news, this summer a derelict petrol station on Clerkenwell Road was transformed into a hand-built cinema by three recent graduates. Cineroleum screened classic films throughout the summer, including Rebel Without a Cause and Barbarella.
Although Cineroleum is now officially retired and awaiting warmer weather, Guerilla Cinema, who dreamt up the concept, are still alive and well and planning future guerilla and pop-up screenings.
Our friend Banksy also took advantage of the latest pop-up cinema craze when he screened the subversive movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop (in which he has a starring role) at ‘Lambeth Palace’ a temporary cinema underneath Waterloo Station. Glitterati, including narrator Rhys Ifans, made their way down a temporary red carpet – made, suitably, of dripping red aerosol paint.
For those who like their cinemas a little less adventurous, independent cinemas across London offer special screenings to please every taste – from no-guilt ‘scream’ mother and baby screenings at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, to big-screen Bollywood in Grade-2 listed surroundings at the Himalaya Palace Theatre in Southall.
But for the truly adventurous, watch this space – movies are bursting off the screen and coming to a space near you!
Photography by evan grant, Russell_Darling and Peter Gasston.
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