Bonus Episode: Mark Kermode shares his favourite cinemas in London, Cornwall and Belfast

In this bonus edition of the podcast, Brian chats with old friend and the UK's No 1 film critic Mark Kermode at the Cinemagic Festival in Belfast. 

Mark shares his love for the Phoenix Cinema in London, the Plaza Cinema in Truro and the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast. Mark also reveals the best place to sit in the cinema. 

Classic movies mentioned include Passport to Pimlico, The Man in the White Suit, The Exorcist, The Devils, Moon, 71 and The Life of Brian. This podcast was recorded at the Queens Film Theatre in Belfast. 

Written and presented by Dr Sam Manning and Brian Henry Martin
Music by Score Draw Music
https://thewondercinema.buzzsprout.com

Chapters

• 0:00 What happened to our dark hair?
• 1:00 What's so special about the Phoenix in London?

Transcript

BHM: Welcome to this special episode of the podcast where I chat to an old friend who just happens to be the UK's number one film critic. We talk about his three favourite cinemas and the best place to sit in the Wonder cinema.

BHM: Okay, so we're here at cinemagic, yes, for the 20th Mark Kermode film Night, and I'm joined by Mark Kermode.

MK: Hello, Brian. 

BHM: Great to see you? 

MK: Yeah, lovely to see you. I can't believe it's the 20th, Brian, it's really, as I said, I saw a photograph of you and I at the first I think it was the first one, and we look like babies.

We've got dark hair and not a wrinkle on us. What happened?

BHM: But Mark, listen. Welcome to the Wonder cinema podcast, yes. Thank you. Thank you for having me where we wonder about cinema. And I wanted to wonder with you about three cinemas in particular that played a significant part in your life. I mean, these are the Wonder cinemas for you. Yes. So let's start with the Phoenix. Yeah, built in 1912 as the East Finchley pictured, but you knew it as something else. Yeah. Tell us about your relationship with this cinema. 

MK: Okay, so what is now the Phoenix? It's it's pretty much opposite East Finchley train station. And I spent my entire youth living on that part of the Northern line, which goes, you know, Finchley, Central, East, Finchley, West, Finchley, up to High Barnet and so opposite East Finchley train station. When I was a kid, it was called the Rex. And the reason that it played a big part in my life was that when half term came, it turned out that the Rex would do these double bills of old Ealing comedies. So there was a whole week in which my mom was a GP, and so she wasn't around. And I, you know, I was just sort of left, I mean, it was a different age. I was pretty much left home. And she said, Oh, you know, you can get, you can get a train ticket to the wrecks, and then you can go. And I saw passport to Pimply coated Phil Thunderbolt man, the white suit, all of these on double bills, like five days, five different double bills in the 1970s Yeah, in the 1970s I was born in 63 so this was in the 70s, and I just fell in love with it. And I in that week when I went, and I literally went five days, and it was the ticket was like, cost nothing at all, and it was a double bill. And I'd never really seen Elaine comedies before. Comedies before, and I just I fell in love with the cinema, and I fell in love with a particular seat in the cinema, because I went back day after day after day, and by the end of that half term, it was my, you know, my cinema. 

The Man in the White Suit (1951) trailer “It shouldn't have done that. Who would be a scientist, but if at first you don't succeed, try.Try again. Mr. Hoskins, it's worked. I've done it, I've done it, I've done it. Stop him. Stop him. Sister, what's the trouble? He's mad. That's the trouble.

MK: And then later on, it became the Phoenix in East Finchley. And then the Phoenix was important to me because they played late night films. So on a Friday night, sometimes I sat in the Mutu Friday they would do an 11 o'clock double bill. So that was where I saw the exorcist the first time. That was where I saw the devils. That was where I saw scanners. That was where I saw shivers. That was where I saw a razor head. That was where I saw pink flamingos. And me and my friend Nick, who could drive before I could because he was older. You know, we'd go pretty much religiously and just watch everything that was on. And I remember that. But I mean, there's a bunch of people of my age for whom the Scala was that cinema. But for me, it all started with the with the Phoenix, which was previously the Rex. 

BHM: Now you said religiously, and it is a religious experience going to cinemas, and it's hallowed ground in many ways, and it also carries the memories of the audiences who were there before. Give us a sense of how special that actual space is to you. 

MK: Well, I mean, there's a there's always a long discussion about what the longest running cinema in the UK, the longest continuously running, the longest, you know, blah, blah. Anyway, the Phoenix, as it now is, is one of the cinemas that has a claim to being one of the longest running. For me, it was to do with the fact that my most regular period of cinema going there was those late night screenings and the people that went to late.

Night screenings were a particular group of people. So you would go, you know, week in, week out, and you would see the same people there. You don't really know them, but you, you know, you'd, kind of, you'd, you'd recognize them. And what they all had was they, it was 11 o'clock at night. Was a Friday. They weren't at a party. They were here, you know, watching a, you know, a horror double bill, or, you know, it's a thriller double bill. Or, you know, like, sometimes they would do the Dirty Harry movies. And what I loved about it was the fact that you all felt that you were here for the same purpose. You were here to actually watch the film. You weren't there, you know, because you'd gone on a date. You weren't there because it was raining, and so, you know what, I mean, you'd gone there to watch the film. You didn't just turn up by accident. And then, of course, the fact that the building had this incredible history, because they had these pictures in the foyer of, you know, the building through the ages, and they'd have it, you know, showing news reels, and they'd have it showing, you know, like, there are some pictures of of it with, with, you know, music, presentation, all that sort of stuff. So it, for me, it was always, I mean, I would go to the Barnett Odeon, and I would go the Hendon Odeon, and I would go to the ABC, those things, but the Phoenix, as it was when I was doing those that felt like a like a cinema in a cinema alone. And that thing that you're saying about, you know, is a hallowed space, it, is it. And of course, the Phoenix has got these incredible murals on the wall, which are all listed, you know, and you know, the tragedy, comedy faces and all that stuff. And so you'd sit there, and it was like a palace. It was like, it was like a, you know, an old fashioned picture Palace, incredibly uncomfortable chairs, like unbelievably uncomfortable chairs, but, but you felt like you're in some kind of palatial environment. 

BHM: And it's a great survivor, amazing survivor. Yeah, it survived, you know, the talkies. It survived television, the Second World War video and another cinema mark that I want to ask you about, which is a favorite of yours, which dates from 1936 which is the year of our wonder cinema, the Ritz, and that is the plaza in Truro. Tell us about that cinema. And why is that so special? 

MK: Well, the Plaza became important to me because I've I hadn't gone to Cornwall until I met Linda, my wife who I'd been married to for, you know, 30 something years now. Linda grew up in Bristol, and when Linda was a kid, she spent a lot of time in Cornwall. She was there. She would work as a chambermaid during the summers. She had friends down there, and she had family and connections. She has some she has family roots in Cornwall. So once we were together, we would go to Cornwall, and the first thing I would do is come and go, you know, are there any decent cinemas around? Anyway, we found the plaza, and it was a beautiful cinema. And somebody said to me, do you know it's got 35 millimeter projection? This was when 35 mil projectors were, you know, they were starting to be replaced by by digital projection.

And I said, Oh, well, you know, let's go and see if they're showing stuff on 35 mil. Then when we started making because we now live in Cornwall, we started making the move towards Cornwall and being there more and more. And I got to know the manager there, guy called Stuart at that point, and and I said, you know, you've, you've got 35 mil projectors. Can I see them? And he went, Yeah, sure. So he took me into the screening booth, and he we just started talking about how more and more films were being projected digitally, and there was less and less opportunity to project 35

and I said, Well, why don't we just start doing like a regular Film Club in which we do we show a 35 mil print, and I'll do an introduction, and maybe we'll get an interview or something. It was Stuart, who was a real, sort of, you know, real cinema fan, said, okay, yeah, it sounds like a good idea. Let's start doing it. And we started just looking around for what 35 mil prints, you know, were available. And as you will know, there was a period, you know, as you know, as the 90s turned into the 21st century in which that kind of library of 35 mil prints sort of started to fall into abeyance. You know, before if you'd wanted to show a movie, you'd call up film bank or, you know, maybe Park circus or something would do. But it became harder and harder to find prints. So we sort of, we looked around for what was available, and then we looked around for who, you know, who might do an interview, or I would do an introduction, then we do a Q A, and in the end, we ended up doing things like we showed Duncan Jones's moon, and Duncan came, you know, and we sold it out so fast that we did two screenings back to Back. To back. We literally did a screening and then a Q and A and then another screening, and then another Q and A. 

Moon (2009) trailer - Sam Bell reporting to Central. Everything running smooth.

Please, over and out rock and roll. God bless America.Good morning. Sam.

MK: We did a 35mm of local hero with Bill Forsyth, and he came from Scotland down to Cornwall, and he stayed. And again, we did two screenings of it. David Holmes came from Belfast, and we did a screening 71 you know, the movie that he made, which there was a 35 mil printer, of which I think he came over with specially. And then, of course, he DJ the party afterwards, because it's David, you know, and, and that was so. But the thing I loved about that cinema was it was very rooted in its community. They were very responsive to what people who lived locally wanted. And they were very up for doing events, you know, for them. So for example, when I think, when brown Willie was made, they did a premiere of it there. I know Mark Jenkin was doing stuff. They were local filmmakers who were showing stuff there. So they were doing that thing that that a cinema at its best does, which was responding to the needs of the local community. The one of the most fun things we had was when Monty Python's Life of Brian came out. It was banned by Truro Council, and Stuart said, you know, I think the ban is probably, I mean, it was never officially lifted, but I think we can probably get away with it now, because it's like these things. It's like, crash is still officially banned in Westminster, because nobody ever on bands things. So what we did was we did a 35 mil screening of The Life of Brian, and we got the projectionist who had projected it to the counselors who had banned it when it first came out. And they, he told this brilliant story. He said, he said it was great. He said, I literally, the counselors all turned up, you know, some of them were their wives, and they watched the movie, and they laughed all the way through it, and then they came back. Went, Yeah, not for Truro, just genius. So I just, I loved that about it. And I, you know, I was really, really love that cinema. It's a bit of proper picture Palace, again, you know, it's got real sense of grandeur. But it was the fact that they were, they were keeping the 35mm thing going at a time when, when it was harder and harder to do that, yeah. 

BHM: And as you say, it's, it's got the real Cornish community experience it has, yeah, and it's a survivor again, you know, under threat of closure. 

MK: So any cinema that you talk about really is a survivor. As we all know, it's very, very hard to keep these things going. And the anyone is running a cinema that is going and thriving is a survivor. 

BHM: It is a survivor indeed. Now talking about timing, the cinema that we're in now, the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast opened in 1968 What could possibly go wrong?

Sadly, only, only the 30 year outbreak of the troubles which really curtail cinema. But yet this place became a beacon, a safe haven, a lighthouse for people during the darkest times. And I know, Mark, you've been coming here to QFT for many, many years. And what is it about this cinema that kind of draws you back? 

MK: Well, I started coming because again, my wife, Linda, when she was teaching at Liverpool, she one of her colleagues was Paul Simpson, who's from Belfast, and and Janice Hoadley, who they are now. They're they're married, and they have have kids, and so they were her friends. And when she left Liverpool, they moved to Belfast.

And so we had, you know, very good friends in Belfast, and we would come to visit Paul and Janice. And then Paul and Janice and their kids, as they had kids, and we started to have kids, and we would always, we'd come over for like, four or five days, and it would always be, let's go and see a film. And where we go and see a film, well, let's go to QFT. And the reason was because it was that thing about, you knew it was going to be, they were going to show interesting films, but also it was going to be a nice experience. It wasn't going to be some, you know, look, multiplexes serve a purpose, and that's fine, but there can be something very faceless about that experience. Yeah, yeah, you know. And well, some definitely projection less, you know, projection is this often. So, so we started coming to QFT, because it was the place that Janice and Paul came to. And once you found a cinema, I mean, this is very much me, once you found a cinema, and you like it, you stick to it. So rather than going what's on, you go, What's On at the QFT, and then you find out what's on the QFT, and then you go and see it there. So then when Cinemagic moved its operations here, it was just like it was a it was just a bit of a godsend, really, because it was like we were already coming to the cinema. And we know people who've had their wedding receptions here, you know. We know people who've had parties here, and it's, you know, so it's been kind of hard wired into our relationship.

Ship with Belfast, and we're in Belfast like two or three times a year, because obviously our God children live here, Paul and Janice's kids and and there'll never be a time that we come when we don't go at the QFT. And it's because it sorry. This sound. This sounds now I know how NAF this sounds coming from somebody with my accent, but it feels like coming home is what it feels like. And I think that of all the cinemas with which you have a relationship, that's what it feels like. It feels like coming home.

Jeremy (1973) trailer - At this year's Cannes Film Festival, 48 films were presented from around the world. They were made by the most renowned directors and featured the biggest name stars in entertainment. But look what happened. A film called Jeremy, directed by an unknown and starring two actors no one has ever heard of, not only won a major award, but in fact, was voted the most popular film of the entire festival by the general public. 

BHM: And you know, all of these cinemas, they have history, they have community,

but they also have that sense of coming home, I think for all the audiences. Yeah, you know, they all come through the door and that wonder is still there every time when the lights go down. Now. Mark, final question for you in the Wonder cinema,

what's the best seat? Where do you sit? Mark? 

MK: Well, okay, so this is a, this is a particular everyone's got their own different seats, okay? And I am very, I mean, I'm 61 now, and I'm stuck in my ways. Ever since I was a kid, I have sat on the last aisle seat on the left. So this is, this has now become a joke, but the thing is, okay, firstly, I have to sit on an aisle seat. I am obsessive about an aisle seat. I don't do what I refer to as trapped seating. I have to have an aisle seat. The other thing, and this is really fascinating, I've always sat on the left hand side. Now, one of the reasons for that, I think, was, when I was a kid, there used to be one side of the cinema that was non smoking. Okay, so if you had, if you imagine, if you went into like, for example, the Barnett Odeon, it had an aisle on the left, you know, a row seating, left row, seat to the right, and a big row in the middle, and most people would sit in the middle, but it would be the one on the left was the no smoking thing. Now, of course, the idea of sitting in the no smoking area of a cinema when people are smoking in the other bit of it, it's like, I've always said it's like swimming in the No weeing Lane in the swimming pool. You know, you'll end up swimming in it anyway, but it became a thing. So I was convinced for ages that the reason that I sat on the left of the cinema was because I didn't want to come out, you know, smelling like I've been in the pub. Years later, I I became very good friends with a guy who's now my neighbour and optician. And when I first needed glasses and I was I went to opposition, they said, Well, you know that you it's not just that you lead with your right eye. You've essentially almost got a lazy left eye. Your left eye is like you're not seeing three dimensionally. So I then got glasses, and I've got very, very different prescriptions from my right eye and my left eye. My left eye actually needs a lot more magnification than my right eye does. And part of me thinks, you know, I wonder whether some of that was the fact that I spent my entire life on the left hand side of the cinema looking at the thing with, with with the right eye. So I'm always an aisle seat on the left. That's, that's, that's my favorite seat. And but if there's a balcony, I'll take a balcony seat. I love a balcony. I love a balcony. 

BHM: Well, Mark, we're going to have to skedaddle to the stage for the Mark Kermode film Night, 20th edition. But listen. Thanks for joining. 

MK: Thank you for having me, Brian, always a pleasure. 

BHM: Thank you.

BHM:  Thanks for listening. And if you've enjoyed this, please go back and listen to season one, where Dr Sam Manning and I tell the remarkable story of the rise and fall of the Ritz cinema in Belfast, but until next time the Wonder cinema is closed.