Prince Charles Cinema may be one of my favourites in London, the theatre can pretty much be described as being in the basement, the seats are old and instead of slopping down the rows begin to slop up a little as they get closer to the screen, making the first few rows my ideal sitting spot, the staff are film buffs and relaxed, maybe a little too relaxed as they will give you direct to a seat that isn't yours, they screen films cheaper (& later) than any other cinema in Central London, being a member I pay only 1 pound fifty for entry in the day, but they don't only screen films that are beginning to leave the bigger cinemas, they also do double bills of classics (the best recent example being Robocop & The Terminator), specialist screenings and films that would have otherwise unfairly gone straight to DVD (see: JCVD), so it was no surprise that they were doing a 7 horror film marathon, I couldn't afford to go all day, or maybe I was just scared that I couldn't handle it, but I think that I might not be true, I watched 8 films in a day at the Sundance Film Festival, but I was younger then, I did buy a ticket to one of the films though, Not Quite Hollywood, the new documentary on Ozpolitation cinema - exploitation films from the 70s and 80s, it had been generating good word of mouth on the festival circuit, it was the second last film in the marathon, and the all-dayers were looking tired and drunk, one was screaming 'Yeah' every two minutes or so through the documentary, the clips from the films were the best part of the film, there was some true schlock made in Australia that I was never aware of, and all of a sudden I was proud to be Australian and to have this cinema heritage, some of it I knew (Mad Max, Mad Dog Morgan, The Man From Hong Kong, Walkabout, etc), most of it I didn't, it was educational to say the least, and one can certainly see in these clips how they capture parts of the Australian national identity, but that is speaking as an Australian, I imagine that would go over the heads of those who don't much about the culture, it isn't a particularly well crafted documentary, it never seems to go any further than giving brief overviews of different films, and this does get tiring, if was a book you wouldn't buy it as it has nothing really to say, watch it for the clips more than anything else, and if you can watch in the Prince Charles Cinema, I am happy to say that another cinema in London is kicking off an Aussie Exploitation retrospective this month, so my learning is just beginning.
Not Quite Hollywood Trailer
