Western Morning News (Saturday)
Picture-goers flock to one of smallest and most secret cinemas in country
There is still one town in Devon where the local cinema has a queue that snakes down the road.
Totnes film lovers in the know will turn up well before the curtain goes up to bag the comfiest seats in what is termed the “coolest little cinema in the world”.
With 70 seats and tucked out of sight, it is definitely one of the smallest and most secret cinemas in the country.
You have to look carefully to spot the Totnes Cinema sign above a small alleyway between two shops on Totnes High Street.
It is a walkway to another world – where viewers can choose to recline on a chaise lounge wrapped in a blanket or sip cocktails while a pianist plays on.
Picture-goers get to sit around tables, slouch on leather sofas or in the tiered balcony above to watch anything from Elf to Some Like it Hot.
Director Jane Hughes said: “We wanted to create the type of cinema that we ourselves would want to go to – it is about as far away from a multiplex as you could imagine.”
Resurrecting the cinema in what was the town’s former library has been a labour of love for Jane, who works as an NHS clinical psychologist, her film industry husband William Johnson and a band of volunteers and supporters who have made it possible.
It was on Jane’s 50th birthday that they heard that their bid to buy the building – which had been The Romany Cinema until 1964 – was successful.
Jane said: “It was a leap of faith. We looked at our business plan and we thought this will never work.”
But it was the intervention of the couple’s friend Peter Richardson, of Comic Strip fame that spurred them on.
Jane said: “He told us, ‘don’t back out now, you have to do this’.”
They were given a head start with two 35mm projectors, seating and a coffee machine. They were due for the tip after the demolition of a preview screening room used by Film4, close to William’s old office at Charlotte Street in SoHo.
“We’ve had the bums of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman sitting on those seats,” laughed Jane. And the rest has come from major fundraising campaigns, asking supporters to become founder members to pledge cash.
“I remember, I was sat outside with a table asking for money and saying, ‘It’s not a good deal, you won’t get your money back’, but people supported anyway.”
Now, the cinema has set up as a Community Interest Company, has bought its own big screen, installed raked balcony seating, sound proofing and invested in a digital projector to widen the variety of films it can show.
A band of 100 volunteers do everything from mix cocktails to cleaning the floor.
Jane said: “That has been the nicest bit. We didn’t know anyone who now works here before and we have come together as like minded people who just love film.”
The history of the cinema stretches back to 1948 when it was owned by brothers Grenville and Kelvin White from Newton Abbot.
It was named The Romany as a reminder of its beginnings as a travelling cinema, showing 16mm films in village halls.
It operated during the heyday of cinema, when the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart graced the screen.
But its fortunes slowly faded with the birth of TV.
Curiously, when the fixtures and fittings of the Romany Cinema were finally removed, five wedding rings were found lodged in framework of the tipup seating – it was the 60s after all.
Back then, audiences would come in large numbers with Saturday night queues often running along the narrow pas- sageway and under the Butterwalk as far as Harlequin Books, many waiting for anything up to three hours to see such legendary films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s; High Noon; and Twelve Angry Men. Another large audience came on Saturday mornings to the children’s show, where American Westerns were a favourite.
Jane said: “That was the heyday in the town and we want to be part of that again.”
Programme manager Colin Orr is keen the cinema shows all types of films from blockbusters to foreign art house movies. He even selects the opening music to suit the screening.
He said: “My job is to bring people into the cinema. Good film comes from all aspects of the film industry, from Hollywood to the other side of the world. It’s about building trust between the cinema, the programmer and the audience, for me to say ‘if you like this, then why not try this’.”
@GardenerFinch ‘It is as far away from a multiplex as you could imagine’
Totnes Cinema director Jane Hughes
It is a lost art in the world of Netflix, large warehouse style multiplexes and where every member of the family can sit around watching different things on their tablets or mobiles.
Colin said: “That is the beauty of coming together to watch something on the big screen with no other distractions.
“Film is magical and it is one of the few communal experiences that we still share. It stays with you for a lifetime.”