Arts diary: Leven shows its community spirit as Art Deco cinema is reborn

Published on Wednesday 10 March 2010 19:38

THE seaside town of Leven, in Fife, is getting ready for its close-up. After a mammoth effort by local citizens to return their 1922 Art Deco cinema to its former glory, it reopens on Friday night with the Scottish premiere of I Know You Know, starring Robert Carlyle.

The Regent, a purpose-built cinema, was last open for screenings in 1966, when it was converted into a bingo hall. After bingo finally wound up last August, the Leven Community Cinema group negotiated a year's lease with its London owners to change it back.

"It was blood, sweat, and tears," says Frank Walker, the chairman. The group won a 6,500 Lottery grant and 20,000 in funding from Fife Council to cover a year's funding costs, but "begged and borrowed from every local company we could think of" to eke the money out. "We have had paint, we have had timber, we have had chandeliers," he says.

They bought a 25ft-wide motorised screen on eBay, from a cinema facing demolition in Liverpool, which the locally based Robert Summers Transport picked up for free. Extra equipment for the 33mm projector was donated by the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh.

In a final coup, projectionist Graham Reekie wangled a premiere showing of I Know You Know, the Welsh-made film which has its UK opening on 9 April. Producer Sally Hibbin is coming to Leven for a Q&A session after the screening and will cut the ribbon to open the Regent.

Directed by Justin Kerrigan, I Know You Know won the Welsh Bafta for best film in 2008. It stars Aaron Fuller as an 11-year-old boy, who fantasises that his unpredictable father, played by Carlyle, is an MI6 agent. Their performances earned respectable reviews, and while critics hardly saw the film as Oscar material, Leven has certainly not seen anything like it.

"We thought it would be something nice to do," said Luciano Chelotti, head of press for distributor Network Releasing.

"They've got a lot going on, so we are happy to support them."

Carlyle could not come, as he is in Vancouver, shooting the second series of sci-fi programme Stargate Universe.

The impetus for the cinema project was a town poll that asked its roughly 30,000 residents what they most needed. The answer showed a surprising passion for celluloid: overwhelmingly, people wanted a cinema; the nearest is some 25 miles away in Dundee or Dunfermline.

The refitted Leven cinema can seat 250, and the weekend screenings are entirely staffed by volunteers, with a standard adult ticket price of 6. The premiere, needless to say, is already a sell-out. Screenings of The Terminator are to follow and there are already calls to show Blade Runner.

Local MSP Tricia Marwick called to alert the diary to the "amazing job" the community has done.

"It is phenomenal," she said.