Harbour Lights is a quaint, art house cinema. A little known neighbour to the hugely successful and hugely mainstream cinema giants that are Odeon and UGC. Yet somehow it survives, attracting a regular as clockwork, cult clientèle and was awarded the ultimate accolade of Best Loved Independent Cinema by Empire readers in 2000.
Its appeal is instantly understandable on entry to the discreetly placed, but elaborately designed glass structure that house Harbour Lights’ two state-of-the-art screens (each with Dolby SR sound) which show best independent, foreign and low budget movies that are ignored by their profit hungry mainstream rivals.
There is a relaxed atmosphere inside. A bar, more at home in a back street jazz club, where audiences can procrastinate over the freshly witnessed slice of Indie cinema with a bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other. This is a movie lovers cinema.
I booked a date with Harbour lights manager Louise Scutts to discuss independent films, how they cope with the mainstream pressure and her disdain for Odeon.
The first thing that is blatantly obvious on meeting Louise, is how different her demeanour is to that of your average Odeon employee.
Instead of the robotic, scripted greeting and attempts at up-sizing your popcorn to the Mega Bucket option, we meet someone who’s bubbly, chaotic and as film crazy as the cinema expects its audience to be. She philosophises over the state of the British film industry and the corporate degradation of the movie market in between chain smoking menthol cigarettes and sipping un-sugared coffee. It is the end of her shift, but it would appear she is as happy staying late to talk to us about her true passion than she would be anywhere else.
What are you trying to achieve in relation to the big cinemas such as UGC and Odeon?
The general vibe of the building, to provide a completely different service from the one they supply . To attract a different clientèle through the different films we show.
What attributes do the movies have to have to be chosen?
We never have anything hugely mainstream - like, say, Spiderman or Hulk. We do touch on the upper end of mainstream. “Bridget Jones” for example has a huge book following and we showed “Lord of the Rings” for the same reason. Plus, we need those occasional big movies to provide a bit of income. The majority of our films are independent, foreign or cult.
Is there a specific audience associated with Harbour Lights?
Its actually more diverse than mainstream cinemas. We’re always accused of being elitist but they’re probably more elitist than we are, aiming their whole publicity campaign at eighteen to twenty-five year olds, where as our members stretch from extremely young up to extremely old. Yes, the majority tend to be over forty but we also have a huge student following…
(Indeed, Harbour Lights is greatly aided by the fact it resides in the vicinity of a college and two universities and even works in conjunction with Southampton Institute to screen young filmmakers work)…
It depends a lot on the film. Things like Ladies in Lavender are a hit with the old dear because its: (sporadic ’old dear’ impression) “such a lovely film, we love Judy Dench.” We also have a big foreign clientèle because of our output of Spanish and French movies.
You occasionally do nostalgic theme nights, what’s the idea behind these?
At the moment we’ve got an American Mavericks theme so we’ve got “Memento” for example. it’s a theme decided by a lecturer from a film course we work in close proximity to. But we also get a lot of the public attending because they’d like to see that film on a bug screen again, or maybe never got a chance the first time around.
Biggest successes?
Well, we had “Raiders of the Lost Ark” four years ago and we were completely sold out. Dads dragged their kids along saying “you’ve got to see this movie at the cinema” and its that kind of movie that people have fond memories of seeing and want to share that with their family or whatever.
You get really daft themes, three Halloweens ago there was a huge mainstream horror movie out that we couldn’t compete with so we thought “lets go really stupid” and we actually played “Carry On Screaming” and two-hundred people turned up to watch it! Mainstream cinemas rarely return to old prints. We’re planning a musical theme now - “Sound of Music” that kind of thing.
Have you ever done any film festivals?
We did one a few years ago called the Popcorn Apocalypse where we showed films like The Terminator and The Predator. Last January we did all three “Lord of the Rings” movies. Twelve hours of Peter Jackson mastery! We’re looking to do that again on the back of the “Return of the King” S.E. Possibly going to do another one next Spring.
What are your views on the state of British cinema?
It could be an awful lot better. There’s a lot of talented people not being given chances and it was maimed badly by FilmFour going down. It’s been a huge, huge blow. It’s a shame because Britain is still renowned for having the best technicians. How many U.S. films are made at Pinewood? The government grants are pitiful! The subject matter are tired, tried and tested. Judy Dench and Maggie Smith, how can they go wrong? Their either very gentile period dramas or gangster movies with nothing outside those two genres.
Do you think that British people support British film?
Only if the film is good, and not necessarily because it is British. Its not really a patriotism thing. We certainly don’t go out of our way to play British films just because they’re home grown. If it is a good film then of course we get them in. We didn’t show “Sex Lives of the Potato Men” mainly because it’s crap!
How does Harbour Lights support local filmmakers?
We’re very tied in with the Institute and students from the film studies course show their final, big piece here on the big screen so they can bring their parents and their grannies and say “look, that’s me on screen at a proper cinema”. We also work closely with Screen South: young filmmakers and were picked as a awards ceremony venue recently where they showed the winning films. We also run regular Saturday morning Young Filmmakers slots where if you have a film in a format we can show - which is pretty much anything - you can watch it here!
That’s a great confidence boost for a young director, how much does it cost?
It’s free! We screen the film for them but encourage them to bring loads of mates and buy loads of beer. It works really well and we’ve got some very professional work - highlighting the fact that there’s a lot of very talented guys and girls who could work well with better equipment and bigger budgets.
Do you think that Indie and mainstream movies are moving closer and the lines becoming blurred and harder to define what is what?
“Donnie Darko” was made three and a half years ago and only got aired at film festivals. The audience response was massive but they did not know how to market it. It was only from pure pressure it got picked up, now look at it!
The best films are the ones that split an audience down the middle. What totally springs to mind is “Lost in Translation” which was cleverly marketed as a quirky, Bill Murray film, but it’s not that formulaic.
A tiny British film, they never expected to do any business, was “Touching the Void”. We had eighty, ninety, one hundred people in seats for that every night! Then it beat “Love Actually” in the BAFTAs and we were slaughtered that weekend! Sold out every night. Then the multiplexes came in smelling profits. Too many people follow critics opinions. Film like every art form is very subjective. I tell my staff to not lie when they’re asked their opinion, even if they didn’t like it. Sky have a ridiculous policy where they won’t review a subtitled film. The stupidity of it was highlighted when “Crouching Tiger” came out and stole the box office and they didn’t breathe a goddamn word about it!
Do you think your cinema will survive against the competition?
Yes! We will because they thought video and DVD would be the death of cinema, but that was absolute pants! Cinema is going from strength to strength. When multiplexes opened they said it was the death of Independent cinema because you can get all the films in one building. Rhubarb! They don’t do that at all, they just put the same film on billions of screens. Case in point. One cinema has thirteen screens and when “Attack of the Clones” came out they played in eleven of the thirteen! That’s not choice, that’s money making! They don’t fulfilled the promise they mooted to. There will always be room for cinemas with the ball to do things differently. We have eighteen sites across England now. We’re more intimate and we give the customer a sense of ownership and belonging. We don not have that ‘shovel them in, shovel them out mentality unlike multiplexes. They only ever have turnaround in mind. We are a corporation that tries really hard not to be. There is a flash of individuality in each of our cinemas.
Do you ever feel like the last man at the Alamo, refusing to dumb down?
Yes! Ha-ha! We are the last Bastions of tasteful film! We will save you!
The passion has taken her over and I eventually have to force Ms Scutts to stop, ensuring her we have more than enough information.
The bottom line is, this is a cinema that loves cinema, and the staff, from barmen and ticket rippers to the manageress sat in front of me, are all fine examples of that.
It’s exactly this mentality and reluctance to conform that means cinemas such as Harbour Lights will be around for a long time, providing film lovers with a refreshing break from the neon world of the mainstream. And not a Mega-Bucket-Meal deal in sight.
Harbour Lights is situated at Ocean Village, Southampton.
For bookings and more information please phone 023 8033 5533
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