Riverside Studios: use it or lose it

Monday July 9th 2012

Look away now, 65% of this blog’s readership: this is a London-centric post. Yesterday I made one of my all-too-infrequent visits to Riverside Studios, ‘London’s pre-eminent space for risk, inspiration and creativity’ (though they say so themselves) and home to one of the city’s best rep cinemas, notable for a program made up almost entirely of double bills.

In 2012, it’s pretty incredible that London even has double feature cinema, let alone one as brilliant as the Riverside. The auditorium features stadium seating, pristine sound and picture, and is probably the best place in the UK to watch movies in 1.37: 1. The staff are friendly, the tickets are cheap (£9.50 for two films) and the program is a thing of beauty. Just look at some of the stuff they’ve got coming up in July and August:

		Thursday 12th July
		Weekend / Romeos
		Friday 13th – Saturday 14th July
		Whisky Galore! / The Angel’s Share
		Sunday 15th July
		French Cancan / The Rules of the Game
		Tuesday 17th July
		Borat / The Dictator
		Sunday 22nd July
		Out of the Past / The Bad and the Beautiful
		Tuesday 24th July
		Sket / Ill Manors
		Thursday 26th July
		2 Days in Paris / 2 Days in New York
		Friday 27th – Saturday 28th July
		The Kid with a Bike / Polisse
		Sunday 29th July
		Exterminating Angel / Belle de Jour
		Monday 30th – Tuesday 31st July
		Dead Ringers / Cosmopolis
		Thursday 2nd August
		À bout de souffle / Bande à Part
		Sunday 5th August
		Mildred Pierce / Laura
		Friday 10th – Saturday 11th August
		Blood Simple / Killer Joe
		Sunday 12th August
		Apocalypse Now – Redux / Hearts of Darkness
		Tuesday 14th August
		Woody Allen: A Documentary / Manhattan
		Thursday 16th August
		Antichrist / The Hunter
		Sunday 19th August
		Some Like It Hot / The Apartment
		Wednesday 22nd – Thursday 23rd August
		Happiness / Dark Horse

I’m not entirely sure how the place has managed to weather the storm of Tory cuts that have done such damage to other art spaces in the capital and around the UK. Perhaps it’s the Riverside’s popularity as a TV studio (for such ‘risky, inspirational and creative’ shows as Celebrity Juice) that allows it to continue its wildly eclectic, offbeat approach to cinema programming. Whatever the reason, you’d be a fucking idiot not to get yourself down to Hammersmith ASAP and catch a double bill before they realise their mistake and start showing Prometheus back-to-back, six shows a day.