Our Next Presentation:  TO BE ANNOUNCED

THE CRAMPHORN THEATRE, CHELMSFORD – Thursday 19th September @ 8PM

How Did It All Begin?

As the Club has just completed its 31st season, I thought current members, past members, guests and visitors to the website might be interested in how the club got started. And yes, it seems to be that we have been going for 31 seasons and not 32, as some of us thought!

Trawling through the archives, I discovered programmes for the first four seasons. Sadly, the year for each season was not printed on the programme, but the dates allow the years to be determined – thank goodness for the Internet!

We began on Tuesday October 4 and ended on Thursday March 6 of the following year, showing ten films. So it can be calculated that the first season was 1988-89. And the ten films? We began with Woody Allen’s Radio Days and continued with Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast, Carl Shultz’s Travelling North, Bertrand Tavernier’s ‘Round Midnight, Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Stephen Frears’s Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Eric Rhomer’s Four Adventures of Reinette & Mirabelle, John Huston’s The Dead and, finally, Joel Coen’s Raising Arizona. What a programme – we clearly started as we meant to carry on! And the subscription? £13 (unwaged £10), guests got in for £2.50. For the second season we screened 12 films and put the sub up to £16 but managed to increase the films to 14 for third season without an increase. However, by the fourth season we showed 14 films again but had to increase the sub to £18. Guests paid £3. The luxury of hiring the Cramphorn Studio came at a price! But we had tested the market and in four years, as the membership started to pick up, became economically viable.

And who were the members? The late and much missed Jill Dimmock  had  heard that Basildon Film Society had been forced to close down and so she made contact with some of us ex-Basildon members in the hope that we could start a new ‘society’ in Chelmsford, aimed mostly at students attending Anglia College. Jill, with myself, Martin Wakelin and Lawrence Islip met in her college office and planned the first programme. But on that evening in October 1988 when we screened Radio Days (Woody Allen became a continuing feature of many future programmes!) there was not a student in sight! And so it continued. But we did tap into a very adult audience from Chelmsford and its environs who clearly wanted to see the best in international, independent cinema. And it was decided from the outset to drop the ‘Society’ and call ourselves a ‘Club’, very much making us ‘of the 80s’.

Within the first ten years, membership had peaked at over 200 and even ten years ago was around 180. In recent years it is clear that there are other ways in which cinema can be enjoyed; witness those huge T.V. screens and ‘Netflix’ streaming, etc., which may account for why membership has levelled off at just over 100. We have many loyal members who’ve been with us for all of the 30 years, and for that we are grateful. But we very much would like to reach out to younger people, maybe some who are getting frustrated with watching movies on ‘devices’.

Personally, I believe there is no substitute to ‘getting out’ and experiencing cinema in all its glory on the big screen with surround sound, in the company of like-minded folk, and with no adverts, trailers or three-course meals being consumed by the person next to you. Admittedly, we can’t offer an arm-chair or couch to sit in!

Here’s to the 32nd season of Chelmsford Film Club!

Peter Bunyan (CFC Chair)

Our Previous Presentation ‘SUMMER 1993’

2019-20 Season

We have selected the 16 films for next season (starting on Thursday, 19th September) and have agreed the 16 dates for screening, with the Cramphorn. We now have to agree which films are to be shown on which dates.

Over the summer, we will be finalising the details for next season; booking the films with the Distributors and preparing the Season’s Programme (which will be sent out to everyone who has renewed memberships as soon as available). The new Programme page here, will be updated with the latest information as I get it.

Your opinion counts

As well as filling in the Response Slips following the showing of each film, you can leave comments for any of the films we have shown via the Discussion page.

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