Double Features

[bhowells]

Anyone out there have a rough idea when uk cinemas stopped showing double features.

The last one I remember was 1982 when Isaw Neil Diamonds "The Jazz Singer."

It must have been sometime after that, because I remember when I was first courting my wife in 1983, we only saw one feature and maybe the odd short or pop video , the latter being in vogue in the flicks in those days.

[batman]

This doesn't give a definite date, but it is quite interesting ...

Double feature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[donna]

when the double feaure ended so did my fascination with the cinema, it was then a night out, a full night entertainment that you could walk into at your leisure, none of this sitting in lobby until the film begins, took my grandson recently to see Game Plan, and felt Id only been in and rushed out, it was far too noisy, between dolby sound and teenagers munching crunching and kicking my seat, was a horrible experience, and I thought the smoke from cigarettes going through the beam years ago was a nuisance, No now Ill just by on DVD all my favourites.

[bhowells]

I agree with you absolutley,my office is near a multiplex Cinema, in the four years I have worked in the area I have seen one film. Wasnt impressed at all. I neveR go the cinemas these days. i miss the big scrreen auditorium of yesterday and all the trappings double bill, trailers, Pathe new etc.

As a regular membef of the forum you would have seen the Guardian article about b movies, there was so much to enjoy in those old palaces as opposed to those dreadful soulless multiplexlexes.

[donna]

how I feel too bh just to see the beautiful usually art deco ceilings and lights the rippled curtains, the plush carpet down the aisles and the ice cream lady with her torch, there were always clocks too lit up inside the cinema, as you say now its lost something , maybe it is soul, dont think Ill be back in a hurry.

[Steve Crook]

Donna, you won't find many that still have an usherette selling "drinks on sticks". But for serious cinema-going you should check out all the art-house and other venues in the area. Just avoid the big chain multiplexes, they're soul-less places.

In Glasgow you have the Glasgow Film Theatre. It has two screens but is much better than a mega-screen big chain multiplex. I also hear good things about the Grosvenor out in Hillhead.

Places like that do have to show mainstream films every now and then, to pay the rent. But if you can find one that shows the more unusual films, even if only once in a while, then cherish it. Get to know the people running it and they might well take suggestions as to what should be shown there.

Steve

[donna]

Thanks Steve will look into that more , dont have anyone to go with, IM the only film freak in the family, and have heard about the Hillhead one, thanks again.

[CaptainWaggett]

Originally Posted by donna Thanks Steve will look into that more , dont have anyone to go with, IM the only film freak in the family, and have heard about the Hillhead one, thanks again.

Whenever I go to either of my local arthouses or to the National Film Theatre, at least half the audience are on their own (even more on a weekday afternoon). It's certainly not something I've ever had a problem with.

It's all very well watching films on dvd but if nobody actually goes to the cinema, what's going to happen to this country's film industry?

[avalard]

This talk of double features is interesting. I never experienced a proper double bill at the cinemas, although I've many a time spent an entire day or night popping from one film to another, or at special festival events.

As part of a course I'm teaching at the moment, I'm putting on a mock-period screening in a mock-period cinema, in an attempt to replicate something of the feel of a 1950s/60s cinema experience. Including two features, a short, period trailers and a newsreel. For those with longer memories, anything I've missed in that?

[batman]

Originally Posted by avalard As part of a course I'm teaching at the moment, I'm putting on a mock-period screening in a mock-period cinema, in an attempt to replicate something of the feel of a 1950s/60s cinema experience. Including two features, a short, period trailers and a newsreel. For those with longer memories, anything I've missed in that?

A pretty young girl selling ice creams and sweets from a tray around her neck.

[Edward G]

You've put your finger right on it, Donna,
Picture palaces, the parting of the curtains, the decor, the sense of an event that accompanied going to the cinema.
In those earlier days, there was no DVD or even video availability, no Sky or multi-channels. Now there is so much choice (though much of it is dross) that the novelty of cinema is largely gone. The multiplexes are staffed in the main by people who don't have a natural interest in cinema and visisted by many customers who seem to view the auditorium as a canteen! In the past, people on the whole respected other people's right to watch a film without listening to noise or excessive chatter. Nowadays, that is all too uncommon.
The soul of it is gone. What's left can be nutured in the art house scene but it's difficult to sustain interest and it can be expensive to run because of rental fees....

Originally Posted by donna how I feel too bh just to see the beautiful usually art deco ceilings and lights the rippled curtains, the plush carpet down the aisles and the ice cream lady with her torch, there were always clocks too lit up inside the cinema, as you say now its lost something , maybe it is soul, dont think Ill be back in a hurry.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by batman A pretty young girl selling ice creams and sweets from a tray around her neck.

And the usherette shining her torch on anyone talking, eating noisily or smooching in the back row

An outing to the cinema was An Event back then. Make sure your audience realises that and joins in the fun by treating it like one.

Steve

[bhowells]

With reference to Avalards mock period screening(a marvelous idea by the way), how about some light easy listening music for the inverval. I would reccomend selections from Burt Kaempfert and Manuel and His Music of the Mountains(a.k.a Geoff Love and His Orchestra.

[Joenoir]

[Mr Dean]

The last time I remember going to see a circuit double bill of new releases (I think re-releases as double bills were later) was in 1979-80. I remember a Lee Majors film called Steel at the Elephant and Castle Odeon, but I don't remember the other half of the bill.

The reference to a mock showing of a whole show (an LCP or last complete programme) reminds of the release of Life of Brian in 1979. Am I right in thinking that the original release included a mock travelogue about a fictitious East European country? This would have been an ABC release. It would only have worked if audiences could still remember the 'Look at Life' series.