Forming of the film club

Chris Arnot

It seems so long ago now that it could have been BC. And, come to think of it, it was BC: Before Covid.

Yes, it was back in the distant days of 2019 that we started to look for a suitable venue to screen films in the heart of Earlsdon.

        When I say “we” I mean John Gore and me. John is almost certainly the greatest authority on cinema in the city of Coventry. After all, he programmed the screen showings at Warwick University Arts Centre for nigh-on 40 years.

        He’d started back in 1982, soon after doing a post-grad degree in film studies at that very university. “The tutor was one Robin Wood who made everything accessible and exciting,” he recalled. “Robin transformed my life not too long after I’d graduated in history and French.”

        John and I were chatting in a café just round the corner from Earlsdon Carnegie Community Library -- the venue that we’d finally settled upon as our film-club haven shortly before it had to be closed down for many months of pandemic misery.

        At least the restoration expert Alan Denyer was able to use some of those months to work in splendid isolation and give the building’s interior a distinctively post-Edwardian appearance. After all, it had opened in 1912 with money supplied by the library-loving benefactor Andrew Carnegie.

        Shortly before John and I adjourned to the nearby café, I’d been sitting on a sofa between the Biography and History of Warfare shelves gazing at two ornate lamps that looked as though they could have been powered by gas.

They were either side of a substantial chest of drawers that could once have housed expansive underwear and substantial corsets. Atop the chest was a sizeable wooden wireless that would once have transmitted JB Priestley’s wartime broadcasts and the Billy Cotton Band Show.

 And way above all was the screen that will roll down again come September when the new cinema season gets underway.           

        It’s worth remembering that John had set up the Stoke Screen cinema club across town at the Coventry and North Warwickshire Cricket Club back in 2018, shortly after he’d taken early retirement from the Arts Centre.

        “We opened with a showing of Gosford Park,” he reminded me. “It seemed appropriate, considering the location.” 

        Indeed. The park of that name is close by the cricket club. Mind you, the film was shot in a rather more exotic location.

        And talking of locations, let’s recall some of those that we visited while in search of a suitable site for the Earlsdon film club.

        They included the Gilbert Richards Centre on Broadway, headquarters of Age UK. “They weren’t very enthusiastic,” John reminded me, “as they were run strictly according to daytime hours.”

        St Barbara’s church hall?

        “We had a look in there but, my God, the seats were a bit hard. There’s a limit to the tolerance of your backside, however enthusiastic you are about the film.”

        The Criterion Theatre and the Albany Club were more promising, but there were some complications in both cases. And so . . .

        Well, I think you know what happened next. Yes, the library finally reopened and, eventually, the first film finally rolled. 

        Now what the Dickens was it?

        Oh yes, A Personal History of David Copperfield. Directed by Amando Iannucci, since you ask.

        Many more would follow. Everything from Boiling Point to Bhaji on the Beach.  And you could watch while sitting comfortably on the seeming abundance of settees and armchairs available. Glass or bottle in hand, too. For those who like a tipple while watching, bottle openers and corkscrews are available. Glasses too.

        Afterwards they’re washed up while the screen is roiled up and settees, bookshelves and armchairs are pushed up to their rightful position. “A place for everything and everything in its place,” to quote the formidable Mrs Beeton.

        Are there any of her cookery books on the shelves here?

        Not sure.

        What I am sure about is that we have a wonderful library here in Earlsdon, and it’s hosting a very fine film club.

        What’s not to like?

At this point I should mention some of those who do far more than me to keep the film club afloat – not least Tom Hoare who does the screening, Jamie Orton who handles the money, and Helen Spence who seems to pull everything together.