The Final Cut

As London rolls out the red carpet for its coveted film festival this month, Clive Morris checks out some of the capital’s best cinemas to sit back, munch on your popcorn and enjoy a good movie

October in the Big Smoke means The Times BfiLondon Film Festival (LFF) and that means movies galore, stars everywhere and lots of glitz and glam. This year, the programme, which takes place on 15–30 October, includes 15 international premières and a bunch of biographies of big men – George W Bush, Richard Nixon, Che Guevara, Hunter S Thompson and Bobby Sands to name a few. If you don’t make it to the festival screenings you can be sure the films will move out across the capital soon after, and with that in mind we give you the Ryanair Magazine guide to the best movie theatres in London – everything from historic art-house gems to huge 3D screens that’ll have you on the edge of your seat.

BfiImax
SCREENS: One
PRICE: £12.50 (€15.50)
CHEAP DEALS: Two films on same day discount.
WHAT TO SEE: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
NEED TO KNOW: With 477 seats, a 11,600-watt digital surround-system and a screen “nearly the height of five double-decker buses”, this is the ultimate cinema expe rience. Much of it is given over to stuff like Deep Sea 3D, but it does the odd blockbuster too. You can get discounts if you see two films in one day – assuming you can take it. We saw The Dark Knight there and barely came out alive!
1 CHARLIE CHAPLIN WALK. TEL: +44 (0)870 787 2525, WWW.BFI.ORG.UK

The Electric
SCREENS: One
PRICE: £14.50 (€18)
CHEAP DEALS: Monday and Sunday Screeners, £10 (€12.50). Front three rows carry reduced prices.
WHAT TO SEE: Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Righteous Kill.
NEED TO KNOW: With its luxurious leather seating, footstalls and tables for your glass of wine, The Electric Cinema in Notting Hill is one of London’s most convivial venues. The line-up is usually quite mainstream, while the screen is specially designed to move out sideways for CinemaScope films.
191 PORTOBELLO ROAD. TEL: +44 (0)20 7908 9696, WWW.ELECTRICCINEMA.CO.UK

Everyman Cinema Club SCREENS: Two
PRICE: £12 (€15)
CHEAP DEALS: None
WHAT TO SEE: Halloween screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on 31 October. NEED TO KNOW: The Everyman feels like a private art gallery, yet mixes world cinema and director Q&As with blockbusters like The Dark Knight. Each seat has a table so you can watch with truffles and a glass of champagne, and there’s even waiter service. The diminutive screen may be an acquired taste, but we’re talking quality rather thanquantity here.
5 HOLLY BUSH VALE, HAMPSTEAD. TEL: +44 (0)870 066 4777, WWW.EVERYMANCINEMA.COM

Prince Charles Cinema
SCREENS: One
PRICE: £5 (€6)
CHEAP DEALS: £4 (€5) Monday– Friday afternoons.
WHAT TO SEE: Iron Man/Incredible Hulk double bill.
NEED TO KNOW: “The day that Kill Bill plays the Prince Charles will be the day that Kill Bill truly comes home.” High praise from none other than Quentin Tarantino. The much-loved movie house always has low prices, as it catches films on their “second bounce” before heading for DVD, with indie flicks and comic hero adventures proving popular.
7 LEICESTER PLACE. TEL: +44 (0)20 7494 3654, WWW.PRINCECHARLESCINEMA.COM

Empire Leicester Square
SCREENS: Five
PRICES: Screen 1, £13.50 (€17); Screens 2, 4, and 5, £10.50 (€13); Screen 3, £9 (€11). CHEAP DEALS: Monday–Friday before 2pm, £10 (€12.50), except Screen 3, £7 (€9). WHAT TO SEE: High School Musical 3. NEED TO KNOW: While this is arguably the jewel in Leicester Square’s crown, it does tend to lose out to the Odeon for top-flight blockbusters and red-carpet premières. Screen 1 is the biggest on the block, and the plush, cathedral-scale auditorium seats 1,330. The venue has plenty of history too, being where Louis and Auguste Lumière gave the first theatrical performances of a projected film to a paying UK audience in 1896.
5–6 LEICESTER SQUARE. TEL: +44 (0)871 471 4714, WWW.EMPIRECINEMAS.CO.UK

Vue Greenwich (The O2)
SCREENS: 11
PRICE: £8 (€10)
CHEAP DEALS: Monday–Friday before 5pm, £6.80 (€8.50).
WHAT TO SEE: The latest James Bond flick Quantum of Solace starring Daniel Craig (right), Max Payne with Mark Wahlberg, and The Informers with Winona Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton.
NEED TO KNOW: As you exit the Tube at North Greenwich you get a superb view of the former Millennium Dome, now rejigged as The O2. As well as hosting concerts and events, the big white tent is home to the Vue cinema, whose Screen 11 is the largest in London (not counting the Imax), boasting 776 seats. With so many screens and a huge choice of films – many catering for families – it’s well worth the trip out of the city centre.
THE 02. TEL: +44 (0)871 224 0240, WWW.MYVUE.COM

Gate Picturehouse
SCREENS: One
PRICE: £11 (€14)
CHEAP DEALS: Monday, £6 (€7.5); Tuesday–Friday before 5pm, £8 (€10).
WHAT TO SEE: The Metropolitan Opera’s Salome and Italian drama Caos Calmo (Quiet Chaos).
NEED TO KNOW: With a well-earned reputation for showing highbrow art-house flicks, the Gate was the first London cinema with live showings of the San Francisco Opera. “You can only really do it with high definition and quality sound,” says general manager Greg Eden-Field. It’s also one of the few places where you can take your drinks into the theatre in a glass, rather than a plastic beaker. However, things were not always so refined, as the building was formerly a hotel with rooms “rented by the hour” and numerous gentleman guests, before it first opened as a cinema in 1911.
87 NOTTING HILL GATE. TEL: +44 (0)871 704 2058, WWW.PICTUREHOUSES.CO.UK

Odeon West End
SCREENS: Two
PRICE: £13.50 (€17)
CHEAP DEALS: Monday–Friday before 2pm, £9 (€11).
WHAT TO SEE: Steven Soderbergh’s biopic Che.
NEED TO KNOW: When the latest big blockbuster has been displaced by the new kid in town, it moves from the single-screen Odeon Leicester Square to here. One of the main LFF venues, it’s the place to catch the latest clutch of trendy new films before they go on general release. 40 LEICESTER SQUARE. TEL: +44 (0)871 224 4007, WWW.ODEON.CO.UK

The Apollo
SCREENS: Five
PRICE: £12.50 (€15.50)
CHEAP DEALS: £8.50 (€10.50) before 5pm. WHAT TO SEE: French drama I’ve Loved You So Long with Kristin Scott Thomas. NEED TO KNOW: The Apollo standsout for its plush seating and dazzling chrome with a dash of pink. Seating is tiered, so you get a good view of the screen – yet you do pay the same for sizeable Screen 4 as you do for the “intimate” Screen 3, which seats just 40 people. 19 REGENT STREET. TEL: +44 (0)871 220 6000, WWW.APOLLOCINEMAS.CO.UK

Coronet
SCREENS: Two
PRICES: £7 (€8.50)
CHEAP DEALS: Tuesday, £3.50 (€4.50); Monday–Friday first show, £4.50 (€5.50).
WHAT TO SEE: Kidnap thriller Taken with Liam Neeson, and Burn After Reading by the Coen Brothers.
NEED TO KNOW: Opened in 1898 as the Coronet Theatre, this grade II-listed building became a full-time cinema in 1923. Thankfully the décor has remained, all gilted gold and red seating. 103 NOTTING HILL GATE. TEL: +44 (0)20 7727 6705, WWW.CORONET.ORG

Cineworld Haymarket
SCREENS: Two PRICES: £10 (€12.50) CHEAP DEALS: Monday–Friday before 5pm, £6.50 (€8). WHAT TO SEE: German drama Die Welle (The Wave) about the dangers of fascism. NEED TO KNOW: The main auditorium of Cineworld Haymarket has been converted temporarily into a theatre, which at the moment is showing a stage adaptation of David Lean’s classic Brief Encounter (1946) – itself a film adaptation of Noël Coward’s original play. Both the lobby and bar area have been decorated with old film canisters and a record turntable. Screens 2 and 3 remain open for films, although heaven knows what Noël Coward would have made of Donkey Punch. 63–65 HAYMARKET. TEL: +44 (0)871 200 2000, WWW.CINEWORLD.CO.UK

Curzon Soho
SCREENS:Three
PRICES:£12 (€15)
CHEAP DEALS: Monday all day and Tuesday–Friday before 5pm, £8 (€10). WHAT TO SEE: Cannes Camera d’Or winner Hunger, about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.
NEED TO KNOW: Even if you don’t want to see a movie it’s nice to wander in and have afternoon tea at the Curzon café, whose raspberry coconut slices are to die for. Of course they show movies too, often indie and foreign films. On 19 October Jonas Mekas, regarded as the godfather of American avant-garde cinema, gives a talk on Marie Menken’s 1962 film Notebook and his own movie diary, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania from 1971. On 31 October Terence Davies gives a Q&A about his new documentary, Of Time and the City, which uses archive footage to discuss his early life in Liverpool.
99 SHAFTESBURY AVENUE. TEL: +44 (0)871 7033 988, WWW.CURZONCINEMAS.COM

Renoir Cinema
SCREENS: Two
TICKETS: £10 (€12.50)
CHEAP DEALS: Monday all day and Tuesday–Friday before 5pm, £7 (€8.50).
WHAT TO SEE: Mexican thriller La Zona.
NEED TO KNOW: A short walk from Russell Square Tube, the Renoir sits underneath the grade II-listed Brunswick Centre. It was originally built to entertain college students and doctors and nurses who worked nearby, and today hosts a decent array of foreign films and director Q&As.
THE BRUNSWICK. TEL: +44 (0)871 703 3991, WWW.CURZONCINEMAS.COM

Odeon Leicester Square
SCREENS: One
PRICES: Royal Circle, £19 (€23.50); Rear Circle, £14.50 (€18); Stalls, £13.50 (€17).
CHEAP DEALS: Monday– Friday before 2pm, Royal, £14 (€17.50); Rear £10 (€12.50); Stalls, £9 (€11).
WHAT TO SEE:Quantum of Solace première, 31 October.
NEED TO KNOW:This 1,683- seat giant is the best place to catch a new blockbuster – but pick an aisle seat to ensure the best.
24–26 LEICESTER SQUARE. TEL: +44 (0)871 22 44 007, WWW.ODEON.CO.UK

The West ain’t always the best

ODEON MEZZANINE
With the largest of its five screens only 5m x 2m, you’d be better off at home in front of a plasma telly than at this venue, which leaves a big hole in a tenner and is situated right next to the Odeon Leicester Square.

CINEWORLD SHAFTESBURY AVENUE
Located within the nasty tourist trap that is Leicester Square’s Trocadero, the smell of sweet popcorn pervades this charmless multiplex. Take the wrong escalator and you’ll ascend into video game hell.

VUE WEST END This place might be more appealing than the Cineworld around the corner and just the ticket for locals, but with little in the way of discounts you could go somewhere cheaper.

ODEON PANTON STREET
Located just off Leicester Square, this cinema has a certain seedy glamour, and also shows movies on their second bounce. But in the era of internet DVD rental and with a screen size of only 3.3m x 1.8m, it can’t compete with the Prince Charles across the square.

What’s on at the festival

Ron Howard’s Frost/ Nixon starring Michael Sheen and Frank Langella is the account of the ground-breaking interview between the journalist and the shamed former US president, and opens the BFI’s 52nd London Film Festival on 15 October. Other movies to look out for include Che, Steven Soderbergh’s two-part biopic of Che Guevara starring Benicio del Toro, Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona with Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson, and Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married with Anne Hathaway. Most showings are at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square. There’s a free outdoor showing in Trafalgar Square of the 1927 silent film High Treason on 23 October and archive London footage on 24 October, both with live piano accompaniment. The Times Bfi52nd London Film Festival runs 15–30 October. For more details,visit www.bfi.org.uk/lff