Tuesday, 19 February 2008

Best UK Indie Cinemas?

I'm very lucky in that my local cinema here in London is the Peckham Plex, arguably the best independent multiplex cinema in the UK (ok, so I may be slightly biased...). When I was at uni in Bristol, both the Watershed and the Arnolfini served up great programmes of arthouse film, and when I was a post-grad living in Newcastle, the Tyneside cinema was a second home.

Many blogs are bewailing the death of the independent cinema, drowning up in a sea of commercialism and over-priced popcorn. However, there are still many of them around, from the Duke of York's in Brighton (where I saw a fantastic live-score version of Nosferatu), to the Filmhouse in Edinburgh. In London, the Prince Charles continues to show a varied and commercial programme whilst keeping ticket prices as low as £1.50 (for members), although in order to cut costs it often receives films after they've done the multiplex rounds. However, in a world where the gap between cinema and DVD release times is narrowing to a wafer-thin margin, I'm not sure this matters so much anyway.

So, for me the leader of the pack is the 'Peck-Plex', which maintains a balance of showing early releases and still charging much less than Odeon or Vue. But I'd be eager to hear your thoughts on this - what's your local indie, and is it worth me venturing outside of SE15 to experience it?!

Links:

Peckham Plex
Prince Charles Cinema
Duke of York's Brighton
Tyneside Cinema
Filmhouse, Edinburgh
Watershed, Bristol
Arnolfini, Bristol

1 comments:

martin said...

i pledge my allegiance to the peckham plex.