It's a Secret, shush!

[dotinthesky]

Secret cinema
Originally uploaded by Benjiwun

wink_martindale and I went for the first time to Secret Cinema on Friday.

Secret Cinema works a bit like an illegal rave - you only find out where it's going to take place by meeting beforehand at some point in London with other attendees. E-mails leading up to the day contain clues of what's going to happen (tough ones to crack, I thought) and suggestions on how you should dress (1940s in this case). They were all sent by a mysterious organisation called UCM (Unknown Cultural Movement).

We arrived at Wapping Station at 6.30pm just like the e-mails asked us and gathered outside with dozens of people. I immediately felt guilty for not dressing up (though my winter coat's upturned collar did give me the look of a post-war spy.) Girls in particular had the look down to perfection, probably because the 40s has already been a trend in London these past few years.

Suddenly, we heard shouting down the street; a march was coming our way carrying placards such as "Freedom to Create". They were distributing red pamphlets on their movement and asking us to join them. We fell behind the march and walked down the streets of Wapping until arriving at a park. The leaders then made us do a jig to warm ourselves up and repeat after them more slogans. We even had to do a bit of dancing with someone nearby we didn't know (in my case, a pair of women who were just as embarrassed as me.) The march then continued all the way to the Tobacco Dock south of Shadwell.

The idea behind Secret Cinema is that for every event they take over a large space in London (kept secret until you get there) and transform it into an environment related to the film you're about to see. If you are a film buff, you guess pretty quickly which film that is. Most people don't though (from what I gathered by eavesdropping on conversation) because the films tend to be classics or cult-like.

About 300 people work behind each Secret Cinema production. For this one, they turned the Tobacco Dock into two floors of shops, restaurants, cinemas and town squares from the 40s that you could visit and interact with. It was much like a Punchdrunk production, only you were invited to become another character (if you were dressed up to perfection, you seamlessly merged with the many actors play-acting in the crowd) instead of remaining an anonymous, masked observer. In this 1940s world, you could buy fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, buy cider from the cask at a local pub (where a chanteuse sang in the corner), watch mimes perform outside shoe shops, have a romantic dinner for two in pre-war Covent Garden or watch the English National Ballet rehearse in a dance studio. Later we would realise that every character, down to the cleaning lady sweeping after revellers, looked like a character in the film we were about to see.

Wink Martindale quickly guessed that the film had something to do with the red ballet slippers worn by the redhead running about the place.



After two hours of wandering back and forth, everyone was asked to go to their cinemas for the evening's screening (the film was screened in at least three rooms, I think.) By then, many were tipsy from the alcohol consumed and the screening rooms were a cacophony of giggles and fake accents trying to remain "in character". Shushing didn't work, which made me realise that Secret Cinema is one of those screenings where you have to be mentally prepared not to enjoy the film in silence. The couple in front of us entered a snog-a-thon as soon as the lights dimmed; the guy beside me preferred texting to watching the film; and the people behind us were loutish and unfunny.

I'd never seen the film and thought it was funny and lovely. Wink Martindale had seen it before though and felt like leaving halfway through, so we snuck out and took the nearby and convenient 339 all the way home. I'm sure I can find a copy of the film at my local library and watch it again at home.

Verdict: Secret Cinema works brilliantly if you dress up and play along, preferably with mates. It can genuinely be a fun night to remember if you enter the spirit of the thing. However, if you don't dress up you might feel some regret and you definitely won't be sitting in a quiet screening by the end. It's a celebration of the history of cinema and not a chance to discover a masterpiece. Also, Microsoft's sponsorship is fairly obvious in some of the production's set design, making it impossible to forget the corporate hand behind it. I suppose it's one of those "better the Devil you know" situations since how could a production of this size be possible without solid financial back up?

It would be great if they did Psycho next...

Comments

[amberholic.livejournal.com]

That sounds like fun... I guess you really need to be in the mood though. How often do they do this?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think it's once a quarter? Probably because of the amount of work it goes into it. How about we get a group of us together for the next one? :-)

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

Sounds great! I'd heard about this, and was curious, so it's excellent you went along on one and wrote it up for me! ;-)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Definitely worth checking out! :-)

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

Sounds amazing although I think the inter-activeness would put me off. I'd love to see Tobacco Wharf being used - went there in the late 90s and it was already a ghost shopping centre then.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The inter-activeness nearly put me off. One actor in particular started chatting to us when we were looking at a map of the area but I just wasn't in the mood for getting into character; when I didn't answer a question he made about where I was from, he started screeching at Wink "why won't he answer my question? Why won't he answer my question?" It was a bit cringey.

If you stick to the background though, you can avoid the inter-activeness of it all and have a good time (if that's your mood.)

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

Woah, that's uncanny. I literally just watched the newish Blu Ray restoration of "The Red Shoes" this afternoon. It was the first time I'd seen it too (and it's brilliant - very much worth watching in full).

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Oh, I bet it looks awesome restored!

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

It is stunning, yep. Definitely worth buying a Blu Ray player for!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Do you have a proper Blu Ray or a PS3? I'm still undecided about getting one but can see eventually I'll have to make the move.

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

I bought a proper Blu Ray player just because, at the time, a lot of the really cool stuff was only out in the States and I wanted a multi-region player. It's not really worth going multi-region though - the UK's been surprisingly good at matching most US releases of any note thus far (as well as the fact that the BFI are releasing by far the best Blu Ray discs out there right now in our very own region).

[norabird.livejournal.com]

ah, the red shoes is one of my favorites! i probably would have been enraged by the snogging and texting....but what an interesting idea.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I thought the snogging was funny and the texting was sad - why bother going to a film if you are going to spend your whole time on Twitter, etc? I hope it's not where we are all going with the cinema experience. It would be sad if we lost the ability to sit in silence for a few hours and enjoy a film.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

Sounds like some of the Shunt events which were a bit more hands-on - can be fun, but really depends what mood you're in at the time.

That Tobacco Dock place sounds amazing, I know where I'm cycling to next time I have a spare afternoon.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what it's like on normal days. Maybe it's just an empty shopping arcade?