Silver Screen Cities: Celebrating city cinema-going

Celebrating City Cinema-Going

‘I, Daniel Blake’, The Phoenix, East Finchley, London

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This morning outside my window I could hear the sound of Frank Sinatra singing ‘New York, New York’. It was coming from one of the cars stuck in the stop-start rush hour traffic. The sound seemed almost surreal – a bold, uplifting song very much at odds with the mundanity of the early morning November […]

‘The Infiltrator’, Picturehouse Central, London

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Tate Modern’s massive bulk looms impressively on the south side of the river. Its vastness is quite awe-inspiring. I rolled up here this morning to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition, which proved to be wonderful. Each room of the exhibition showcased a different period and style of her art, including abstract expressionism, New York cityscapes, […]

‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’, BFI Southbank, London

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When you emerge from London Bridge underground station the entrance to Borough Market is right there next to the station exit. If you live on the Northern Line as I do, it couldn’t be easier to get here. The only other time I’d been to Borough Market was late in the evening for a drink […]

‘Wiener-Dog’, Picturehouse Central, London

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“Two tickets for Wiener-Dog, please.” “The auditorium should be all right for you now.” “That’s good”, I replied, wondering why the box office person would say that. “There are bottles of water outside the auditorium in case it’s too hot”, he continued. A scrap of paper taped up on one side of the box office […]

‘Maggie’s Plan’, Curzon Soho, London

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We’re in the middle of summer now. Not a good time of year for filmgoing, unless vacuous Hollywood blockbusters are your thing. Even here in London with its huge number of cinemas I struggled to find any film I would want to see this week. It came down to a choice between The Neon Demon […]

‘Strangers On A Train’, The Phoenix, East Finchley, London

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What better way of spending a Thursday morning than sitting in the art deco splendour of Finchley’s Phoenix cinema watching an old Hitchcock classic? About twenty cinephiles gathered here today for the 10.30 showing of the 1951 thriller Strangers On A Train. The film didn’t start until a few minutes later than scheduled, but that’s […]