One of the UK’s oldest working cinemas, the Electric Birmingham, has shut, with the last film screening listed as yesterday (February 29).
The closure has been confirmed on the cinema’s official website. The cinema dates back to 1909, and was built in a converted taxi rank in Station Street.
Kevin Markwick bought the cinema in 2021, with his daughter Katie Markwick running it. He did not respond to Screen’s request for comment at time of publication. Markwick also owns the The Picture House Uckfield in Sussex.
The Electric was previously owned by Tom Lawes, who closed the cinema during the first March 2020 Covid lockdown.
The closure has been confirmed on the cinema’s official website. The cinema dates back to 1909, and was built in a converted taxi rank in Station Street.
Kevin Markwick bought the cinema in 2021, with his daughter Katie Markwick running it. He did not respond to Screen’s request for comment at time of publication. Markwick also owns the The Picture House Uckfield in Sussex.
The Electric was previously owned by Tom Lawes, who closed the cinema during the first March 2020 Covid lockdown.
- 3/1/2024
- ScreenDaily
London, July 13 (Ians) India’s wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh will be playing for the London Spirit in the upcoming season of Women’s Hundred competition in England as a replacement for injured Australian player Georgia Redmayne.
Richa, who was not included in India’s ongoing tour of Bangladesh, will join captain Harmanpreet Kaur (Trent Rockets) and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana (Southern Brave) as the third Indian player to play in the Women’s Hundred competition.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (Ecb) also announced that seam bowler Lauren Filer and UAE all-rounder Mahika Gaur, a young bowler who’s making waves in domestic cricket at Thunder, will be featured in Women’s Hundred for Spirit and Manchester Originals, respectively.
Oval Invincibles’ Tash Farrant and Trent Rockets’ Emma Jones have been replaced by Lizzie Scott and Cassidy McCarthy respectively, while Leah Dobson has replaced Phoebe Franklin at Northern Superchargers.
In the men’s Hundred competition,...
Richa, who was not included in India’s ongoing tour of Bangladesh, will join captain Harmanpreet Kaur (Trent Rockets) and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana (Southern Brave) as the third Indian player to play in the Women’s Hundred competition.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (Ecb) also announced that seam bowler Lauren Filer and UAE all-rounder Mahika Gaur, a young bowler who’s making waves in domestic cricket at Thunder, will be featured in Women’s Hundred for Spirit and Manchester Originals, respectively.
Oval Invincibles’ Tash Farrant and Trent Rockets’ Emma Jones have been replaced by Lizzie Scott and Cassidy McCarthy respectively, while Leah Dobson has replaced Phoebe Franklin at Northern Superchargers.
In the men’s Hundred competition,...
- 7/13/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Thomas Lawes plays a synth score on screen as a teen drama plays out above – a bold experiment that doesn’t fully work
Director Thomas Lawes is the proverbial one-man band on this modern silent movie. He has not only written, filmed, edited and composed the music, but is also visible playing the keyboards, guitars and drums of the synthwave score in split screen underneath the action, like a funky sign-language interpreter. It’s a kitsch formal quirk that initially adds a kind of distancing effect to this simple urban fable, but it quickly becomes invisible (presumably less so in screenings with live accompaniment).
Ella McLoughlin plays Amaryllis, a sullen, beanie-hatted skater girl living with her alcoholic mum (Liz May Brice). After breaking into a warehouse where waifish drug dealer Roach (Adam El Hagar) is doing business, she manages to worm her way into running errands for him. Taking a cut,...
Director Thomas Lawes is the proverbial one-man band on this modern silent movie. He has not only written, filmed, edited and composed the music, but is also visible playing the keyboards, guitars and drums of the synthwave score in split screen underneath the action, like a funky sign-language interpreter. It’s a kitsch formal quirk that initially adds a kind of distancing effect to this simple urban fable, but it quickly becomes invisible (presumably less so in screenings with live accompaniment).
Ella McLoughlin plays Amaryllis, a sullen, beanie-hatted skater girl living with her alcoholic mum (Liz May Brice). After breaking into a warehouse where waifish drug dealer Roach (Adam El Hagar) is doing business, she manages to worm her way into running errands for him. Taking a cut,...
- 11/21/2022
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Exclusive: British thriller Monochrome is set to market premiere at the London Screenings this month.
UK genre specialists Devilworks has acquired worldwide rights to Monochrome, Thomas Lawes’ thriller starring 2013 Screen Star of Tomorrow Cosmo Jarvis (The Naughty Room), Jo Woodcock (Dorian Gray) James Cosmo (Braveheart, Game Of Thrones) and Lee Boardman (Longford).
The film tells the story of a female serial killer who targets the wealthy. Cosmo’s detective tracks her down using special abilities granted to him by his neurological condition synaesthesia, which confuses his senses, allowing him to hear colours and see sounds.
Suzie Norton is producing the project for Birmingham-based Electric Flix.
Monochrome is set to receive a market premiere at the London Screenings later this month.
Devilworks has also acquired international rights (excluding UK, Germany, Australia, Nz, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) to documentary Welcome To Leith, which premiered at Sundance 2015 and went on to pick up awards at HotDocs...
UK genre specialists Devilworks has acquired worldwide rights to Monochrome, Thomas Lawes’ thriller starring 2013 Screen Star of Tomorrow Cosmo Jarvis (The Naughty Room), Jo Woodcock (Dorian Gray) James Cosmo (Braveheart, Game Of Thrones) and Lee Boardman (Longford).
The film tells the story of a female serial killer who targets the wealthy. Cosmo’s detective tracks her down using special abilities granted to him by his neurological condition synaesthesia, which confuses his senses, allowing him to hear colours and see sounds.
Suzie Norton is producing the project for Birmingham-based Electric Flix.
Monochrome is set to receive a market premiere at the London Screenings later this month.
Devilworks has also acquired international rights (excluding UK, Germany, Australia, Nz, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) to documentary Welcome To Leith, which premiered at Sundance 2015 and went on to pick up awards at HotDocs...
- 6/6/2016
- ScreenDaily
Were the first ever moving pictures made in Leeds by Louis Le Prince? David Nicholas Wilkinson’s intriguing documentary makes a convincing case
What starts as a somewhat creaky investigation into the blue-plaque claim that Louis Le Prince “probably” made the world’s first short films in Leeds in 1888 mutates into something altogether more moving and mysterious as director/presenter David Nicholas Wilkinson is consumed by the magic of the moving image. Arguing convincingly that Le Prince’s experiments beat both Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers to the punch, Wilkinson traces the strange story of his subject’s disappearance from the world, and from the history books. Although some of his on-screen discoveries seem staged (“Look, here it is!”), there’s no faking the passion and sincerity that Wilkinson brings to the few fleeting seconds of footage at the heart of this story. Anyone who enjoyed Thomas Lawes’s...
What starts as a somewhat creaky investigation into the blue-plaque claim that Louis Le Prince “probably” made the world’s first short films in Leeds in 1888 mutates into something altogether more moving and mysterious as director/presenter David Nicholas Wilkinson is consumed by the magic of the moving image. Arguing convincingly that Le Prince’s experiments beat both Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers to the punch, Wilkinson traces the strange story of his subject’s disappearance from the world, and from the history books. Although some of his on-screen discoveries seem staged (“Look, here it is!”), there’s no faking the passion and sincerity that Wilkinson brings to the few fleeting seconds of footage at the heart of this story. Anyone who enjoyed Thomas Lawes’s...
- 7/5/2015
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Mark Kermode picks the year's best DVD releases that went largely unnoticed – but are too good to miss
Ping Pong
(Hugh Hartford, 2012, Britdoc Films, E)
A documentary about octogenarian (and upward) table tennis may not sound like the most obvious formula for life-affirming thrills, but this splendid account of the Oap "paddles of fire" circuit is as nail-biting as any sports event this year. Most impressively, the age of the participants (some in triple figures) quickly becomes an irrelevance as their competitive personalities take over to dominate the drama. There's nothing quaint or genteel about this battle of wits from players whose faculties, both physical and mental, have clearly been enhanced by the beautiful game.
The Dardennes Collection
(Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 2012, Artificial Eye, 15)
The work of these most admirably humanist directors is gathered together in a six-disc collection which cements the Dardennes' reputation as guardians of the beating heart of cinema.
Ping Pong
(Hugh Hartford, 2012, Britdoc Films, E)
A documentary about octogenarian (and upward) table tennis may not sound like the most obvious formula for life-affirming thrills, but this splendid account of the Oap "paddles of fire" circuit is as nail-biting as any sports event this year. Most impressively, the age of the participants (some in triple figures) quickly becomes an irrelevance as their competitive personalities take over to dominate the drama. There's nothing quaint or genteel about this battle of wits from players whose faculties, both physical and mental, have clearly been enhanced by the beautiful game.
The Dardennes Collection
(Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 2012, Artificial Eye, 15)
The work of these most admirably humanist directors is gathered together in a six-disc collection which cements the Dardennes' reputation as guardians of the beating heart of cinema.
- 12/23/2012
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Silent Souls (15)
(Aleksei Fedorchenko, 2010, Rus) Igor Sergeev, Yuriy Tsurilo, Yuliya Aug. 78 mins
Even by Russian standards, this lyrical road movie is a strange world of its own. It's a journey back in time, as much as across a remote landscape, with a friend helping his boss to give his deceased wife her last rites, according to their ancient tribal ways. Along the drive, we're steeped in strange folklore involving vodka, rivers, small birds and ornamental pubic hair. Is it for real? Or an elaborate joke told with a very straight face? Does it matter?
The Five Year Engagement (15)
(Nicholas Stoller, 2012, Us) Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Chris Pratt. 124 mins
The obstacle to true love is built into the title of this romcom, but it's at least smartly handled, as high-flyer Blunt keeps her fiance in perpetual limbo.
Where Do We Go Now? (12A)
(Nadine Labaki, 2011, Fra/Leb/Egy/Ita) Claude Baz Moussawbaa,...
(Aleksei Fedorchenko, 2010, Rus) Igor Sergeev, Yuriy Tsurilo, Yuliya Aug. 78 mins
Even by Russian standards, this lyrical road movie is a strange world of its own. It's a journey back in time, as much as across a remote landscape, with a friend helping his boss to give his deceased wife her last rites, according to their ancient tribal ways. Along the drive, we're steeped in strange folklore involving vodka, rivers, small birds and ornamental pubic hair. Is it for real? Or an elaborate joke told with a very straight face? Does it matter?
The Five Year Engagement (15)
(Nicholas Stoller, 2012, Us) Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Chris Pratt. 124 mins
The obstacle to true love is built into the title of this romcom, but it's at least smartly handled, as high-flyer Blunt keeps her fiance in perpetual limbo.
Where Do We Go Now? (12A)
(Nadine Labaki, 2011, Fra/Leb/Egy/Ita) Claude Baz Moussawbaa,...
- 6/22/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Tom Lawes's film about the cinema he restored – Birmingham's Electric – is an entertaining trip down memory lane
Tom Lawes's film is a labour of love about a labour of love. In 2004, Lawes bought the crumbling Electric Cinema in Birmingham and restored it. The Electric is the oldest working cinema in Britain; it opened to show silent movies in 1909, became a newsreel cinema in the second world war, and then in the 1970s a sleazy but profitable porn-fleapit when British cinema production and exhibition was going through an all-time low. Lawes interviews the various owners and projectionists of the Electric and sits them down for a lively debate about the relative merits of digital projection versus 35mm film. Does digital lack soul? Maybe; maybe not. This film occasionally looks like a sentimental in-house video, but it's an entertaining trip down cinema's memory lane.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryFilm industryPeter Bradshaw
guardian.co.
Tom Lawes's film is a labour of love about a labour of love. In 2004, Lawes bought the crumbling Electric Cinema in Birmingham and restored it. The Electric is the oldest working cinema in Britain; it opened to show silent movies in 1909, became a newsreel cinema in the second world war, and then in the 1970s a sleazy but profitable porn-fleapit when British cinema production and exhibition was going through an all-time low. Lawes interviews the various owners and projectionists of the Electric and sits them down for a lively debate about the relative merits of digital projection versus 35mm film. Does digital lack soul? Maybe; maybe not. This film occasionally looks like a sentimental in-house video, but it's an entertaining trip down cinema's memory lane.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryFilm industryPeter Bradshaw
guardian.co.
- 6/21/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
As digital takes over, many in the film industry are mourning the death of 35mm film after 120 years in the business. But it's time to move on to a far more flexible format
After 120 years and countless movies, 35mm is officially on the way out. In January, 63% of the world's screens will be digital, according to report from Ihs. Last year, 67% of global screens were still 35mm. The year 2011 is the tipping point, when digital cinema replaces celluloid as the mainstream form of projection. It's the end of an era and the start of something new.
"Since 1889, 35mm has been the principal film projection technology," David Hancock, head of film research at Ihs, said this week. "However, after 10 years of market priming, movie theatres now are undergoing a rapid transition … spurred initially by the rising popularity of 3D films."
In 2009, James Cameron's Avatar convinced the industry that it was time for an upgrade.
After 120 years and countless movies, 35mm is officially on the way out. In January, 63% of the world's screens will be digital, according to report from Ihs. Last year, 67% of global screens were still 35mm. The year 2011 is the tipping point, when digital cinema replaces celluloid as the mainstream form of projection. It's the end of an era and the start of something new.
"Since 1889, 35mm has been the principal film projection technology," David Hancock, head of film research at Ihs, said this week. "However, after 10 years of market priming, movie theatres now are undergoing a rapid transition … spurred initially by the rising popularity of 3D films."
In 2009, James Cameron's Avatar convinced the industry that it was time for an upgrade.
- 11/29/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
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