I haven't seen an old style cinema building like this for a long, long time. Probably not since I last saw a movie in Richmond in about 1997. Since I've been living about 7,500 miles (12,000 K) away, it was just a little too far to go for a movie, with those long security lines, and the price of air travel and all. Hard to find the time really.
But since we were visiting locally in November 2012, I took my young son to the Richmond Regent itself to see the latest James Bond movie Skyfall, and to see the cinema building itself. It gets super dark inside, which is very cool and this is probably the darkest theatre I know. In the pitch black you can immerse yourself in the movie.
My research shows that the Regent Theatre is one of a large number of picture palaces built in Spanish style from the end of the 1920s. The cinema was designed by Herbert and Wilson, the architects and designers of the Parramatta Roxy cinema. The Regent is rumored to have a resident ghost, which doesn't surprise me. The creaky old floorboards remind me of a haunted house. There's a lot of history here.
The building has an upstairs red velvet lounge area with couches, which was functional to hang out in those days when there were actually intermissions between double features or long movies. Nowadays I guess it's the place to take a cell phone call if a world leader needs your urgent advice before the movie ends. Or maybe it's a girlfriend calling to apologize that she was actually wrong about it all and you were right and she should have listened. I joke about this because such a girlfriend call is purely fictional and would never happen. A call from a world leader would be more likely.
Now that I think about it I don't know the difference between a cinema and a theatre, or if there is a difference at all. Four stars for something historic and different from the mundane. read more
