30 Blogs of Night: The Electric Cinema, a Love Letter

Day 18... I think.
The Electric Cinema in Birmingham is one of the oldest in the country, possibly the world. It sits near to New Street Station and is small, not a multiplex or anything like that, but it's easily my favourite place to go and watch films.

Part of it is that you can book a sofa to lounge on, taking in the films in comfort, part of it too is that you can text orders to the bar (yes bar) and have refreshments brought in during the film. True, it's only if you're on a sofa but it's a wonderfully civilised feeling, having drinks and food brought to you as you relax.

They show more eclectic fodder too, if only because they won't show 3D films unless they've been shot in 3D, rather than on the old 'two cameras laid over each other' type of thing that a lot of film makers go for. They're also less obsessed with the whole 'big budget' films, not that there's anything wrong with those and I do end up seeing most of the Marvel films there, it's just that they also show things like High Rise or the Room.

It's comfortable, fun and a pleasant place to go, being gloriously antiquated - they have an old fashioned ticket machine, blurting the little slips out rather the huge ones you get at places like the Odeon. It's charming.