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A CENTURY OF KINEMA And by
KINEMA IN THE WOODS
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100 Years of Kinema...
LOOK OUT! One of the earliest public film screenings was L’arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat in 1895. Not a fancy art house French film with a clever title, but in fact comparatively dull footage of just that; a train in motion, travelling towards a camera. It was a short documentary-style film shown by Auguste & Louis Lumière. The moving image began to emerge from about 1878 developing from several technologies from photography to animation. Though no one single person can be credited with ‘inventing’ cinema, the Lumière brothers certainly ensure it came to people’s attention in the early days. Viewers of the above film saw a train heading towards the camera, and were terrified, screaming and leaping out of their seats, convinced that the train which was heading towards them would come through the screen and smash into them. Sounds ludicrous in our mediated world, but it was a powerful, ground-breaking spectacle at the time, and the medium of cinema would yield many more moments of fright, raucous laughter, surprise, passion and delight for the next century and beyond. Narrative films – i.e.: those which that told a story –would emerge with The Great Train Robbery in 1903, a 10-minute film which was also ‘edited’ with different scenes cut together. A Visit to the Seaside brought colour to the medium in 1908. 1909 saw the first feature-length film – Les Miserables – and then in 1915 D W Griffith’s (now horribly racist) Birth of a Nation was the first bigbudget Hollywood epic. Finally, 1927 saw The Jazz Singer, emerge as the first film with dialogue. By 1922, film was establishing itself as the entertainment medium of the future, and Woodhall Spa’s Kinema in the Woods was founded in a former sports pavilion, in the same year as the BBC was founded. Remarkably, in that time Kinema in the Woods has had just three owners/managers; Major Carleton Cole Allport, James Green and now Philip Jones. The latter began working at the Kinema in 2004 as a projectionist and acknowledges the responsibility and joy of serving as nothing less than the custodian of cinema history in Lincolnshire. “I do feel the weight of responsibility,” says Philip. “Kinema isn’t just a business or a cinema, it’s absolutely beloved by the county. It’s history through the prism of film.” In an age of multiplexes, Kinema is the David to the industry’s Goliaths, but with four screens and the latest laser projection plus Dolby 7.1 sound in its most recently added screen, it’s technologically right up-todate. Still, the place retains its charm as somewhere more parochial than the out of town cinemas run by big entertainment chains despite its diminutive nature. Cineworld has box office revenues of £311m from its 101 cinemas; Odeon has a £296.8m share of the market and 120 cinemas, followed by Vue with a market share of £271m, Showcase with £81.9m and Everyman’s £41.8m. Kinema is a sort of love letter to the medium, valuing its heritage with display cabinets of classic film posters and equipment including its original 1922 projector in the lobby and devices to splice films. And yet the cinema is still faithful to its original purpose, showing 200 different films across 3,000 screenings each year. Its four screens have 169, 92, 74 and 21 seats; a total of 356 seats. >>
Kinema in the Woods
A CENTURY OF CINEMA
1811: Men working in a mineshaft near the site discover water and the hamlet of Old Woodhall becomes a spa town. 1860-1884: Stafford Hotchkin develops a hotel and spa nearby. 1888 (approx): A sports pavilion is established in the grounds of Hotchkin’s Pavilion Victoria hotel. 1922: Sir Archibald and Lady Weigall purchased the Victoria Hotel’s ruins including the sports pavilion and, with the assistance of Captain Carleton Cole Allport, the pavilion is transformed into a cinema which opened its doors on Monday, September 11th 1922 at 7pm. The first film to be shown was intended to be ‘The Lion Eaters,’ however the film failed to arrive so a Charlie Chaplin film was shown instead.>>
KINEMA AT 100
CINEMA CELEBRATES CENTENARY
>> Across 3,000 screenings, we reckon that around 100,000 cinemagoers a year enjoy a visit to the Flicks in the Sticks.
“It’s a year-round place to enjoy, but rainy days rather than sunny days are better in the summer,” says Philip. “It depends on the film releases, and I ultimately choose what to screen and determine the schedules for the four screens, but we tend to show what we know will be popular from experience.” “Films are made by ‘film companies’ who own or use distributors, and we ‘buy’ films from those distributors. There are about six major UK film distributors. Around 10 films are released every week but eight of those will be niche titles, only a couple will be mainstream releases.”
“The government supported cinemas during Covid but it was still awful to see the place empty. The first big release post-Covid was No Time To Die, and that was when the cinema started to be really full again, when it felt like there was light at the end of the tunnel.” “The industry likes mainstream cinema, but the sizes of our screens also enables us to screen films which aren’t big blockbusters per se, but will be popular with our local audiences – historical biopics like 2022’s forthcoming Lost King, a comedy drama about the 2012 discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park.” As for Philip, he gets to see all the films he fancies, but it’s telling that in his office on the wall is the film poster for his very favourite film of all time, 2006’s The Prestige, a psychological thriller directed by Christopher Nolan. Have I seen it, he asks. I haven’t, but I’ll definitely take that recommendation. Meanwhile, as my meeting with Philip draws to end, the first audience of the day streams in, making their way straight over to the popcorn, the smell of which is already wafting through the cinema. Taking their seats and watching the Kinema’s Compton organ descend back down into the floor, the lights dim on the audience. But never ever on cinema itself. n
Top/Left: Kinema’s Compton Kinestra organ was installed in June 1987 and is still played by resident organist Alan Underwood. Top/Right: Kinema’s original 35mm projector, from 1922.
Thanks to low roof trusses, Kinema remains the country’s only full-time cinema to rely in rear-projection. Opposite is the most modern film projector, which shone film onto a mirror which was when projected 90° onto a screen about 20ft in front of it. Films arrived in reels around 20 mins in duration and the Kinema staff had to manually splice them together and mount them on metre-wide spools which fed the 35mm film into the projector... until the entire industry went digital from 2010-2012. Today, films arrive in the Kinema’s projection room, via an ordinary broadband internet connection. Commercial quality films are about 150-200 gigabytes in size. Cinemas purchase them from distributors along with a digital key which specifies how many times and on what dates they can be shown. Downloaded a week in advance, staff cue up adverts and trailers, then a computer sends the image to a digital projector, and the audio track via a Dolby 7.1 sound processor to about 20 speakers. The digital projector’s Xenon bulb is between 2kW and 6kW, lasts 2,000 hours and costs £700 to replace two or three times a year. The Kinema’s newest screen, number four, has a laser projector, which is slightly newer and smaller technology. n
HOW ARE FILMS SHOWN AT KINEMA TODAY?
>> 1928: Sound comes to the cinema for the first time. ‘Interviewing Wild Animals in Africa’ is the first presentation shown with audio. 1930: The Pavilion Cinema’s name is changed to The Kinema in the Woods. 1938-1944: The Kinema is a hit with airmen during WWII. 1953: The final deckchairs are replaced by proper tip-up seats. AUGUST 1973: Major Allport sells Kinema to James Green. 1987: The Kinema’s Compton organ is installed. 1994: Screen two is added to Kinema with 92 seats. ‘Four Weddings and A Funeral’ is its debut film. 2010: 35mm film projection ceases and the cinema ‘goes digital.’ 2013: James Green retires and Philip Jones takes over the business. JUNE 2019: Screen three is added to the cinema, seating 74. The Beatles-themed film ‘Yesterday’ is the first film to be shown. OCTOBER 2021: The fourth and final screen, seating 21 people, is opened. It debuts with the film ‘Last Duel.’ n
100 YEARS IN FILM: A century of cinema at Kinema in the Woods
Year: Film: Box Office: Year: Film: Box Office: Year: Film: Box Office:
1922 Robin Hood $2,500,000 1923 The Covered Wagon $5,000,000 1924 The Sea Hawk $3,000,000 1925 The Big Parade $18,000,000 also: Ben Hur $10,738,000 1926 For Heaven's Sake $2,600,000 1927 Wings $3,600,000 1928 The Singing Fool $5,900,000 1929 The Broadway Melody$4,400,000 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front $3,000,000 1931 Frankenstein $12,000,000 1932 The Sign of the Cross $2,738,993 1933 King Kong $5,347,000 1934 The Merry Widow $2,608,000 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty $4,460,000 1936 San Francisco $6,044,000 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs $418,000,000 1938 You Can’t Take It With You $5,000,000 1939 Gone with the Wind $390,525,192 1940 Pinocchio $87,000,862 1941 Sergeant York $7,800,000 1942 Bambi $267,997,843 1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls $11,000,000 1944 Going My Way $6,500,000 1945 Mom and Dad $80,000,000 1946 Song of the South $65,000,000 1947 Forever Amber $8,000,000 1948 Easter Parade $5,918,134 1949 Samson and Delilah $14,209,250 1950 Cinderella $263,591,415 1951 Quo Vadis $21,037,000 1952 This Is Cinerama $50,000,000 1953 Peter Pan $145,000,000 1954 Rear Window $24,500,000 also: White Christmas $26,000,050 1955 Lady and the Tramp $187,000,000 1956 Ten Commandments $90,066,230 1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai $30,600,000 1958 South Pacific $30,000,000 1959 Ben-Hur $90,000,000 1960 Swiss Family Robinson$30,000,000 also: Psycho $50,000,000 1961 101 Dalmatians $303,000,000 also: West Side Story $105,000,000 1962 Lawrence of Arabia $77,324,852 also: The Longest Day $33,200,000 1963 Cleopatra $40,300,000 also: From Russia with Love$12,500,000 1964 My Fair Lady $55,000,000 also: Goldfinger $124,900,000 also: Mary Poppins $44,000,000 1965 The Sound of Music $286,214,076 1966 The Bible: In the Beginning $25,325,000 1967 The Jungle Book $378,000,000 also: The Graduate $85,000,000 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey $141,000,000 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid $152,308,525 1970 Love Story $173,400,000 1971 The French Connection$75,000,000 also: Diamonds Are Forever $116,000,000 1972 The Godfather $246,120,974 1973 The Exorcist $413,071,948 also: The Sting $115,000,000 1974 The Towering Inferno $203,336,412 1975 Jaws $470,653,591 1976 Rocky $225,000,000 1977 Star Wars $775,398,007 1978 Grease $395,452,066 1979 Moonraker $210,300,000 1980 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back $547,969,004 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark $389,925,971 1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial$792,910,554 1983 Return of the Jedi $475,106,177 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom $333,107,271 1985 Back to the Future $389,053,797 1986 Top Gun $356,830,601 1987 Fatal Attraction $320,145,905 1988 Rain Man $354,825,476 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade $474,171,806 1990 Ghost $505,870,681 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day $523,774,456 1992 Aladdin $504,050,045 1993 Jurassic Park $1,034,199,003 1994 The Lion King $968,483,777 1995 Toy Story $373,554,033 1996 Independence Day $817,400,891 1997 Titanic $2,187,535,296 1998 Armageddon $553,709,626 1999 Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace $1,027,044,677 2000 Mission: Impossible 2 $546,388,105 2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone $1,006,968,171 2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers $947,495,095 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King $1,146,030,912 2004 Shrek 2 $919,838,758 2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire $896,346,413 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $1,066,179,725 2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End $963,420,425 2008 The Dark Knight $1,005,973,645 2009 Avatar $2,847,397,339 2010 Toy Story 3 $1,066,969,703 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 2 $1,342,025,430 2012 The Avengers $1,518,812,988 2013 Frozen $1,290,000,000 2014 Transformers: Age of Extinction $1,104,039,076 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $2,068,223,624 2016 Captain America: Civil War $1,153,329,473 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi $1,332,539,889 2018 Avengers: Infinity War $2,048,359,754 2019 Avengers: Endgame $2,797,501,328 2020 Demon Slayer: Mugen Train $504,334,511 2021 Spider-Man: No Way Home $1,901,232,550 2022 Top Gun: Maverick $1,353,542,869
THE WORLD’S 30 BEST FILMS: The Critics’ Favourites...
1. Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles USA 2. 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Stanley Kubrick UK 3. Vertigo 1958 Hitchcock USA 4. The Godfather 1972 F/F Coppola USA 5. The Rules of the Game 1939 Jean Renoir FR 6. Bicycle Thieves 1948 Vittorio De Sica Italy 7. Psycho 1960 Hitchcock USA 8. Singin’ in the Rain 1952 Gene Kelly et el USA 9. The Searchers 1956 John Ford USA 10. Seven Samurai 1954 Kurosawa Jap 11. Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz USA 12. Bonnie and Clyde 1967 Arthur Penn USA 13. Raging Bull 1980 Martin Scorsese USA 14. Pulp Fiction 1994 Tarantino USA 15. Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski USA 16. Eight and a Half 1963 Federico Fellini Italy 17. Rashômon 1950 Kurosawa Jap 18. Annie Hall 1977 Woody Allen USA 19. The 400 Blows 1959 François Truffaut FR 20. Breathless 1960 Jean-Luc Godard FR 21. Star Wars: New Hope 1977 George Lucas USA 22. Tokyo Story 1953 Yasujiro Ozu Jap 23. Lawrence of Arabia 1962 Lean, David UK 24. ET The Extra-Terrestrial 1982 Spielberg USA 25. Some Like It Hot 1959 Billy Wilder USA 26. Taxi Driver 1976 Martin Scorsese USA 27. GoodFellas 1990 Martin Scorsese USA 28. The Godfather Part II1974 F/F Coppola USA 29. Schindler’s List 1993 Spielberg USA 30. Gone with the Wind 1939 Victor Fleming USA
CINEMAS 20 GREATEST QUOTES...
1. “Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn...”
Gone with the Wind (1939) 2. “I’m gonna make him an offer he can't refuse...”
The Godfather (1972) 3. “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore...”|
The Wizard of Oz (1939) 4. “Here's looking at you, kid...”
Casablanca (1942) 5. May the Force be with you...”
Star Wars (1977) 6. “You've got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya... punk?”
Dirty Harry (1971) 7. “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good...”
Wall Street (1987) 8. “You had me at ‘hello.’”
Jerry McGuire (1996) 9. “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what l am...”
On The Waterfront (1954) 10. “Rosebud...”
Citizen Kane (1941) 11. “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...”
Casablanca (1942) 12. “Bond. James Bond.”
Dr No (1962)
13. “Made it, Ma. Top of the world!”
White Heat (1949) 14. “Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars!”
Now, Voyager (1942) 15. “You don't understand Osgood; I'm a man...” “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
Some Like It Hot (1959) 16. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
Wizard of Oz (1939) 17. “No. I am your father...”
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 18. “You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to?”
Taxi Driver (1976) 19. “Nobody puts Baby
in the corner...” Dirty Dancing (1987) 20. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning...”
