Your
Belmont
Memories

"One of my most favourite memories is visiting Belmont during their Charlie Chaplin week, which celebrated the films of the legendary actor and director, Charlie Chaplin. I attended a screening of a documentary which told the life story, achievements, and struggles of this great artist.

The film spoke to and moved me in a way in which I will not forget. I even shed a few tears. I am thankful to Belmont for always having unique screenings such as this, which cannot be found in large cinemas. Thank you, Belmont!"

"I have seen so many wonderful films at The Belmont that it’s difficult to choose one but going to the French and Italian film seasons with my language class were a highlight of the year. We would swap our grammar books for class outings and try to watch the films without looking at the subtitles - not always successfully!

Seeing the countries we were so interested in brought to life on the big screen was the next best thing to being there on holiday."

"I have fond memories of exhibiting in the Belmont Cinema for my Bachelor’s Degree in Photography. Not only this, I have also viewed some really educational movies here which related to my studies.

I also fondly remember the 12 hour extended edition Lord of the Rings being shown here in 2012. All very happy memories."

"On Sunday 29th of December 2019 I went to the Belmont. My dad was up from Glasgow for the weekend and we are both big fans of the cinema. I saw online that ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” was showing in the Belmont at 11:00, as part of their weekly run of animated and kids films, but for which adults were also welcome. Spiderverse happens to be one of my favourite films of all time, so the chance to see it on the big screen again was a really special treat at the end of the Christmas holidays. We watched the film, and it was magnificent. No surprise.

But, my actual biggest takeaway from that day came afterwards. We’d had a little time to spare between our breakfast and the film, so we wandered the shops and looked at the January sales. I bought a small notebook, just big enough to fit a film ticket in it. After the film, I stuck my ticket to Spiderverse in that notebook and kept it, and I decided to make a habit of doing that. I decided that 2020 would be my Year of Cinema, and that I would try to fill that notebook by the end of the year. (Oh, the irony…)

I have kept up that habit since that day. In the three years since that morning, I have kept every cinema ticket for every film I have seen at every cinema I’ve been to. I am nearing the end of my second little notebook, and my collection is big enough now to warrant a detailed spreadsheet to keep track of everything. It’s been very helpful to me, since these cinema tickets and the flood of memories associated with each ticket have been helpful anchors for me in an extremely turbulent three years. Seeing the gap between the cinemas closed in March of 2020 and when they properly re-opened in August of 2020, only to close again in December 2020 and re-open properly in May of 2021, it really drives home what an insane time it was, and how we’re all still recovering from it.

Looking back, I can see that from that first saved ticket in December 2019 to the Belmont’s closure in October of 2022, I visited a total of 37 times. Discounting the 350-ish days the cinemas were closed, that’s a visit just under every two weeks. As with any tragic loss, one can’t help but feel guilty and wonder what else could have been done to stop this. “You could have gone more often,” my brain tells me. “You could have spent more in the kiosk, you could have donated more each time you bought a ticket, you could have taken more friends along with you and encouraged others to go too…” Hindsight is 20-20, and if I could go back and change things I absolutely would be going every day if it would make a difference. Would it have tipped the scales and saved the Belmont? Who knows.

But, what I can do now is to cherish the times I was there. The films I saw in that time were all special, the memories are beautiful and the emotions that came from those times will stay with me forever. I got to see so many special things: anime masterpieces, gut-wrenching dramas, mesmerising fantasies, half-forgotten childhood favourites (including the last film I ever saw with my late grandfather, which I was able to rewatch in the Belmont on a breezy September morning on my own and remember seeing it with him), bombastic superheroes, and delightfully weird foreign films that I would never have gotten the chance to see otherwise. I felt every emotion as I stared up at those three wonderful screens: joy, fear, surprise, excitement, sadness, catharsis, rage, and everything in between.

Trying to pick just one memory is difficult. Each film has a lot of weight, all the more so now because the Belmont is closed. Do I talk about seeing The Iron Giant with a friend, and both of us ending up in tears at the end, laughing because we were crying, and crying again? Do I talk about taking a friend to see The Secret of Kells after her illness kept her out of the cinema for an entire year? Do I talk about seeing Flee all alone on a Wednesday evening, almost a year ago to the day of writing about these memories? Reconnecting with an old university friend after ten years apart by going to see The Eyes of Tammy Faye together? Being a little bit shell-shocked after The Green Knight?

If I had to highlight just one, I would go for my viewing of ‘Shazam!’ at 11:00 on the 11th of December 2021. Maybe not the most highbrow of films, and certainly not a wildly popular one. I was all alone in that screening, mask on my face regardless of my solitude, sitting in the assigned seat printed on the ticket (F10, my favourite seat in the screen). I adore Shazam! a lot more than most of the barrage of superhero films we’re still in the middle of. I love how much it focuses on found family and still manages – in my opinion – to balance daft humour with real emotional sincerity. Being on my own in that screening was probably a big waste: a waste of electricity, money, staff time, and other resources. But, it just felt really special to me, like the screening was thought up entirely for me. I didn’t have to be silent in a screen on my own, but I was; I was lost in my own world for two hours and it belonged entirely to me.

That’s a lot of what made the Belmont so special: it was a place for me, and for us. It was a place that really celebrated the magic of cinema. No film was too big or too small, too niche or too popular, too cheap or too expensive. Everyone was welcome there, and everyone was safe there. The staff were always so kind and helpful, never hesitating to print my tickets for my collection or chat with me while I was waiting.

When the Belmont comes back – when, not if – you can bet that I’ll be right there to welcome it back. This city is incomplete and barren without it, and I know I’m not the only person hoping and praying every day to get it back."