Your
Belmont
Memories
Spoons
"I had seen the film The Disaster Artist at the Belmont and enjoyed it. Typical of the majority of films I went to see at the Belmont the audience was small. So when the opportunity arose to see the film that inspired The Disaster Artist and there were only a limited number of screenings I felt I had to go and see it. I usually aimed to arrive 20 minutes after the official start time so as to avoid the adverts. This has rarely been a problem.
On this occasion I was a little bit earlier than this and was stunned to see people queuing up outside. "What is going on?", I am thinking. "Why are so many people interested in a film of limited appeal?" I get to the ticket desk and I am lucky to get one of the last remaining seats in the front row of the large Screen 1. I prefer to sit near the back so as not to strain my neck and go swivel-eyed trying to take in a large screen close up. I was invited to take some plastic cutlery on the counter. "What is this for I asked?". "It is part of the film." was the reply with an enigmatic smile.
Sure enough Screen 1 was packed out. The film starts and a little way in the people behind me shout "Spoons" and I am showered in plastic cutlery . This happened at key points during the film. Also the audience shouted out phrases at certain repeated phrases or camera shots. The audience clearly knew this obscure film very well. Never in my 50 years of cinema going have I encountered such an immersive experience. Well done to the Belmont.
The film, in case you want to look out for it, is "The Room" by Tommy Wiseau. A film that has to be seen in a cinema.
Bruce Taylor
Share Your Memory
Spoons
"I had seen the film The Disaster Artist at the Belmont and enjoyed it. Typical of the majority of films I went to see at the Belmont the audience was small. So when the opportunity arose to see the film that inspired The Disaster Artist and there were only a limited number of screenings I felt I had to go and see it. I usually aimed to arrive 20 minutes after the official start time so as to avoid the adverts. This has rarely been a problem.
On this occasion I was a little bit earlier than this and was stunned to see people queuing up outside. "What is going on?", I am thinking. "Why are so many people interested in a film of limited appeal?" I get to the ticket desk and I am lucky to get one of the last remaining seats in the front row of the large Screen 1. I prefer to sit near the back so as not to strain my neck and go swivel-eyed trying to take in a large screen close up. I was invited to take some plastic cutlery on the counter. "What is this for I asked?". "It is part of the film." was the reply with an enigmatic smile.
Sure enough Screen 1 was packed out. The film starts and a little way in the people behind me shout "Spoons" and I am showered in plastic cutlery . This happened at key points during the film. Also the audience shouted out phrases at certain repeated phrases or camera shots. The audience clearly knew this obscure film very well. Never in my 50 years of cinema going have I encountered such an immersive experience. Well done to the Belmont.
The film, in case you want to look out for it, is "The Room" by Tommy Wiseau. A film that has to be seen in a cinema.
Bruce Taylor
Casual Screenings & Other Events
"Holding casual screenings of classic, beloved, or cult movies in the bar downstairs was an excellent idea. The sofas and bean bags created a relaxed atmosphere, and the bar was open to buy drinks from. I started bringing my friend along, I think the first movie they came to was 28 Days Later.
I also ended up bringing my friend along to the Climate Action Cafe meetings. They were really informative and always busy (had to arrive early to get seats). It felt good to have an accessible communal space to have these wildly different but important events that informed and inspired us, as well as a place to relax and enjoy our evenings."
Robin Johnson
A Good Place to Cry
"I've been to many crowded, joyous screenings, but the ones closest to my heart are the ones that made me cry. Walking into Stations of the Cross with no idea what to expect and needing half an hour after the film ended before I could walk downstairs and face the world.
Being the only person in an early-morning screening of 120 BPM and just losing it. Seeing the first screening of First Cow on the first day after lockdown and just crying with relief that I was back in the cinema. The Belmont's always been the place in the world where I feel most at home with my emotions (particularly if I'm in screen 3, seat C1, my absolute favourite), and where I feel most myself. And I have cried at an awful lot of films."
Timothy Baker
Field of Barley
"I was working abroad but was back in Aberdeen for a holiday - staying at Skene Apartments because my house was rented out. Sunset Song was playing at The Belmont and, as the ultimate work free indulgence, my wife and decided to go to a weekday afternoon screening.
I was so looking forward to this, I had recently reread the Sunset Song trilogy while abroad (and for the first time since being force fed it while at school in Stonehaven). It had made be so homesick with the brilliant evocation of the Mearns countryside and the cheek by jowl rural existence. The short walk from Skene Apartments was a refresher - we were pelted with freezing cold needles of rain that we hadn’t properly dressed for and so arrived at the cinema cold and wet. We hunkered down in front of the screen for a warming tale of rural idyll , but I’d misremembered. What a shocking, brutal tale of lost opportunity, broken dreams and domestic violence.
I was shaken and shocked and staggered out at the end ready to discuss what we’d seen. I turned to my wife , who’d grown up on a farm, to hear what she’d made of it. She said she couldn’t believe what she’d seen. “That bit where the kids walk home from school through the field of ripening barley! No farmers’ kids would do that’. And that was it. I realised then that film touches us all in different ways!"
Chris Oliver
Being a man from Belmonte
"My first trip to the Belmont was to see Best In Show, I snuck out of a tour of RGU with some friends and saw one of the funniest films.
A few years later I returned to Aberdeen with cinema experience and CV in hand with the Belmont in my sights. I got the job, tricket wasnae the word.
It was a dream come true. We showed great films, had great regulars and it was the tightest crew I've ever worked with.
After a few months of asking, Nelly agreed to train me in 35mm projection and a childhood dream was realised.
I worked at the Belmont twice, 2 and a half years each time and miss it dearly.
So many highlights: the quiz, kids club, dressing up for The Dark Knight, ice creams sitting on the curb, hanging in the kitchen, BTTF Trilogy, King Creosote, staff screening of Moon, marshmallow shifts, getting to watch Caddyshack on my birthday, Drummonds on a thursday after some hard projection graft.
I'm hopeful for the Belmont's future as it's vital for the city to have somewhere showing reel cinema."
Stewart Burr