A group of high-profile film-makers, including Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and Guillermo del Toro, has clubbed together to buy the Village Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles. The move echoes the founding of United Artists in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and DW Griffith. Quentin Tarantino already owns two LA cinemas, including the Vista.
In the UK, some directors have tried similar ventures. Jeremy Thomas co-owned Edinburgh’s Cameo Picturehouse, and Tilda Swinton and the author briefly ran the pop-up Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams. But with cinemas closing in cities such as Bristol and Edinburgh, why haven’t more UK directors bought their own?
The main obstacle is money: few UK directors have the spare hundreds of thousands needed. Also, much of the UK’s cinema circuit is not purely private. Chains like Picturehouse, Vue, Everyman and Curzon show bold films, but many independent cinemas receive public funding from the BFI, National Lottery or local councils. These sums are small and insecure, and cinemas often become charities to access them.
This publicly funded model supports specialist seasons and film education, making the UK’s film exhibition scene richer than many US equivalents. But after years of funding cuts, this ‘cinematheque’ model is under threat. Directors like Lynne Ramsay, Jonathan Glazer and Edgar Wright value these cinemas as places that show daring, edgy films that inspire new work.
In Rome, director Nanni Moretti owns the Nuovo Sacher, while the Cinema Troisi is a study centre supported by government funding. In Traverse City, Michigan, the State and Bijou cinemas are owned by the film festival founded by Michael Moore. The UK could combine these approaches: film-maker figureheads working with community partners, like the 1,600 grassroots cinema spaces supported by the Cinema for All group.
The American directors bought the Village Theater out of passion, not profit. The UK’s publicly funded model is also about belief in film as an enriching art form. Marrying these approaches could help save Britain’s endangered cinemas.
