My Cinema Story

The first issue

In 1992 my family made a big move from Cardiff to Aberystwyth. From the city to the coast, a two and a half hour drive to a small but bustling university town. It’s a beautiful place if you’ve never been. In 1992 I was too young to know the difference between where I’d been and where I was. I benefitted from a higher ratio of ice cream, and that’s all that matters when you’re four.

At the time there was only one cinema in Aberystwyth, The Commodore. A family-owned, single-screen affair with red curtains, a mysterious (when you’re 5 years old) bar downstairs, and a small kiosk by the screen for your interval treats. Navigating your way up the seemingly endless staircase, an exercise in concentration and acrobatics would unfold as you tried to keep your popcorn afloat in one hand, while thumbing your ticket out of the palm of your other. None of that cinema admin was required as a child; I simply had to watch my mother struggle while I climbed the staircase to the most exciting room in my life.

My first trip to the cinema was to see Disney’s Peter Pan. As I didn’t really know what a cinema was, for all I knew, the red curtains that hid the screen were actually hiding Captain Hook himself, ready to pounce and take me away to join his motley crew of crooks and sailors. My four-year-old self was petrified, sitting in the cinema, facing a reality of a life at sea. When the curtains opened, to my relief, instead of getting kidnapped, the Coco Pops advert blared out, and I instantly realised I was basically watching an enormous TV. All was well.

From then on watching movies became a cornerstone, an escape, a social endeavour, and a portal in time, depending on what I was watching, or who I was watching it with. I could have studied it in university, but I didn’t really feel like I needed to understand film; I understood what it meant to me and that’s all I needed.

I’m a bit older now, and my interest in the movies hasn’t waned one bit. I’m on a podcast about them, I write reviews about them, and now I’ve decided to tell their stories through this newsletter.

So, what can you expect from here on in?

There is a fantastic opportunity to tell stories about how film came to be, the effect it had on us, and how cinema shapes us. This last century is unique in that, we can go back to any year and see what our ancestors were doing and how they did it without the need of archaeologists and specialists guessing their way through a two week dig. This direct link to the past fascinates me and I have already discovered that there is a world of stories I knew nothing about.

My hope is that I’m able to give you a small insight into history and film in a few different ways. One newsletter may be about a film like The Life of Brian and how it was banned everywhere (or was it?), another may be about how one of the big studios started, or what audiences really thought of Charlie Chaplin playing Adolf Hitler during World War 2.

Some of it you may know, some of it you may have heard things about, but not the full story, and others will hopefully be completely new to you! I hope to shine a bit of light on these things and go where my interests take me. I am aiming to produce this newsletter in seasons, this being Season One and will last around 12 months or so. Let’s see where it takes us!

I am truly thankful for you signing up to this newsletter. The initial interest was heart-warming and I hope you enjoy them. If you have any questions or want to comment or propose any ideas for future posts, you can reply directly to this email, and it will come straight to me. I’d love to hear from you!

The first proper newsletter will be in two weeks’ time. Until then, go and find that film that reminds you of being in the cinema as a kid, watch it with someone if you can, and remember what it was like to get lost in that world for the first time.

Gareth.

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