The Prince Charles Cinema is the only gig in town.
I go there often, usually to catch up on films I missed when they were mainstream, and films I wouldn't dream of forking out the full-blown London price for, but kind of half want to see.
If you are a lifetime member, as I am, you get a discount on the (already discounted) ticket prices.
More importantly, they show older movies that you rarely get a chance to see on the big screen. Recently I had the pleasure of introducing a friend to the Elia Kazan classic A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Of course Brando, as Stanley Kowalski, gives a fearsome, mind-blowing perfomance and wow...that body... but for me it is Vivien Leigh, thinly masking her delusions of grandeur and alcoholism, who shines brightest. In Blanche Dubois she gives a truly frightening masterclass in acting.
I know it's cliched and queer, but I relate to Blanche's heroic but desperate search for a place to call her own, to her battle for independence and security in a wolf's world and, at the same time, to her neurotic need for a protector in the face of devastating personal circumstances. All of this resonates in my mind with the triumphs and tragedies of Leigh's own life. Most notably her two Best Actress Oscars (Gone With the Wind & Streetcar,) the relentless grip of her manic depression and her premature demise, aged 54, from tuberculosis.
An actor's life is what it is. There is "success" and "failure" on every rung of the ladder. Elia Kazan said of Vivien that " she'd have crawled over broken glass if she thought it would help her performance."
So would I.
