When is a petrol station like a cinema?
Probably never. There are few buildings more different to each other than a charming old picture house and a form-and-function service station. But that hasn't stopped a group of Clerkenwell artists and residents from turning one into the other.
Called
The Cineroleum, this 118 seat movie theatre has been built entirely out of found or donated materials – from the wooden flip down seats, to a rather ornate theatre curtain, to the elaborate, old skool picture house signage. It's taken the artistic and creative eyes, and constructional talents, of 15 artists and designers to bring The Cineroleum to life. They've had to
design and build everything from scratch, with the help of willing locals who stopped by to see what was going on.
The basic design involves hanging the heavy curtain around the old forecourt roof, and setting the chairs and screen up within, so that when the curtain's dropped the lights go out. But at the heart of the design is the desire to rekindle the exciting atmosphere picture palaces had during the golden age of cinema, when a trip to the flicks was a properly decadent treat.
As well as re-fuelling the fire of our love for cinema, the group behind The Cineroleum are also making a point about using derelict spaces creatively. And the expensive emptiness of modern cinemas - which they're rallying against by charging only £5 per ticket. To an eclectic season celebrating some of the best big screen cinema experiences, showing Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 8:30 (doors open at 7.). This is a truly disposable venue, it's popped up for a short run until the 12th of September.
You couldn't build a cinema out of a petrol station without references to the only other place cars and films meet: the drive ins of the 1950s. So as well as European cinematic classics like
'Metropolis' (Saturday 11th September),
'M' (Sunday 5 September),
'Delicatessen' (Thursday 9 September) and
'The Third Man''Night of the Living Dead' (Friday 3 September). And they're hosting a 'B-Movie Night' on Saturday the 4th.
Tickets are being released the week of the performance so there's still a good chance of getting a ticket to one of the later screenings. Support the innovative souls behind this recolonising of space for pleasurable usage by patronising their candy bar, for some pick n' mix and pop corn served in paper cones (welcome to the 50s), or their bar for a hard or soft drink. You might want to BYO cushion though – the hand made wooden chairs might leave you limping out of
'The Long Goodbye' (Sunday 29th August).
