Electric Shadows Cinema

This was always a great place to go to if you wanted to see a film that was thought-provoking, or at least an antidote to some of the mindless spectacle of Hollywood. I remember the foyer area was quite small (almost non-existant, really) and often people were crowded all the way up the huge flight of stairs to the street.

There was a great little bookshop attached to it (the Electric Shadows Bookshop) that was equally as diverse in its collection. Whenever I was in the area, I always liked to stop in and see what they had. Many things would catch my attention, books on writing, art, academic texts, poetry.

Both cinema and bookshop were places that encouraged me to think, analyze and dream. I miss them, now that they are gone and wish I’d stopped in more often.

The last time I went to this place, and the last time I will ever go to this place was yesterday. I am about to move to New York in a few days time, and the place will close down before I move back, so the owner can open up a big dendy cinema. I have mixed feelings about this because it means there will be more good indy and foreign films in Canberra, but I will miss the old cinema. There are two cinemas in it – one red and one blue. The red one has red vinyl seats, black and white photos from old movies with a red background on the way in, and they give you a red ticket stub to get in. The blue one is the same only blue.

I saw 49 up, which as you may no is a part of the 7up series where Michael Apted interviewed a group of kids at the age of 7 (42 years ago) and followed them every 7 years till now. It’s like a half-century long version of big brother, only with interesting people in it in who actually do stuff with their lives, and it doesn’t put you to sleep.

I took these two photos, and got someone else to take one of me and my friend in front of it that was blurry so I didn’t post it up. I wanted to get a photo of the bridget bardot (???) picture outside the red cinema (the blonde with short hair and a new york times t-shirt, does anyone know the movie?), but I was too shy. Too late now!

Farewell electric shadows sob sob. Canberra will miss you!

http://www.electricshadows.com.au/

The first time I ever went to the movies was to see ‘The Last Unicorn’ at Electric Shadows cinema. It’s a great art-house place (the only one in Canberra), with lots of fesitvals and great foreign films. They also have a great bookshop that also rents out their best films on dvd/video. Oh and they make their own choc tops that are much better than the other places. And they are cheaper.