Institute of Light

DavidSimpson on April 15, 2017 at 8:28 am

I made my customary visit on Good Friday, 14th April 2017, to see the 9pm screening of “Personal Shopper”, starring Kristen Stewart. When I arrived, the early evening film, “The Salesman”, starring Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahab Hosseini, was on, so the shutter had been brought down behind the front doors (see the Overview above) and a helpful map shows how patrons should enter the cinema via the rear entrance.

That leads to a covered courtyard with tables and chairs, which in turn leads to the café/restaurant directly behind the auditorium.

In the auditorium, seating is a mixture of “airline” seats, other free-standing seats and two-seater sofas. All are very comfortable and there is a very generous rake, affording excellent sightlines. Adding to the ambiance were the frequent trains passing by overhead (the cinema is in a converted railway arch!) – as “Personal Shopper” is a ghost story it was sometimes unclear whether the rumbling came from the sound system or the railway. But at least the railway wasn’t as intrusive as it was at the long demolished, but fondly remembered, Bijou, Sloughborough, as featured in “The Smallest Show on Earth”!