Anyone who has even passed through London’s Brick Lane knows just how hectic and overstimulating it can be. With vendors standing outside restaurants tempting you to enter with juicy deals, and Lime bikes requiring you to dodge around like a game of Subway Surfers, it can sometimes feel like too much.
But I have recently discovered a tucked-away gem that I am more than happy to brave the bustling journey for.
Enter Close-Up Film Centre, home to a small but cosy cinema screen and a relaxed bar space. Oh, and it also has the biggest collection of DVDs I have seen in a cinema.
It claims to house over 26,000 films, books and digital media entries. These span across various generations, genres and regions to provide a feast of entertainment. You can also rent out the discs for a couple of quid to enjoy at home.
I recently had half an hour to kill in the area, so I decided to pop in for the first time to have a proper peruse of what discs are on offer. Let’s just say I was engrossed to the point of being late to meet my friend.
There’s just so much to enjoy here as a film fan and general cinema nerd. I found a copy of one of Taika Waititi’s early movies that I hadn't seen before, Eagle vs Shark, which features a fresh-faced Jemaine Clement.
Shuffling along to the excellently curated animation category, I also came across a collection of Lotte Reiniger’s short films. Although not a household name, she is quite the celebrity for animation fanatics as she created the first feature-length animated film more than ten years before Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released.
It felt pretty neat to see her work up on the shelves, and it really felt like there was something for everyone in the Close-Up collection, from new mainstream releases to arthouse films from the forties.
Where I, like most people, find myself looking for what to watch on a screen rather than physically looking through discs, this detox felt oddly therapeutic.
No ads were pushing me to go for a certain film, and I wasn’t influenced by an algorithm feeding me suggestions based on what I usually watch.
While the cinema itself is relatively small, the 40-seater also offers a variety of different movies to enjoy. Rather than focusing on new releases, Close-Up often looks back at older releases that have helped to shape the cinematic landscape today.
The filmography of Austrian director Michael Haneke, for example, was recently put in the spotlight with screenings of some of his most well-known films, such as The White Ribbon and Caché.
This combination of an excellent archive and niche movies being unearthed on the big screen makes for such a special experience, especially considering the difficulties independent cinemas are facing at the moment.
So, if you find yourself wandering the length of Brick Lane and aren't sure where to begin, Close-Up could well provide a much-needed refuge.
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