h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We're not badly off, culturally, where I live. Just down the road is the Nottingham Broadway, one of England's most prominent independent cinemas. I've always enjoyed cinema and would support the view that it's the seventh art form, but due to various issues I haven't been as avid a cinema goer as I used to be.

However, a good friend of mine, just slightly younger than me, recently suffered a terrible out-of-the-blue illness that has left his liver in a parlous state. We used to go out drinking together occasionally but that is now out of bounds. So, each week, we go to the Broadway to see a film. For nine quid, you get a meal at the cafe (which is pretty good) and you get to see the sort of film that you would have to wait a month of Sundays to see in one of our overcrowded, badly-seated, sticky-floored and expensive multiplexes. I have yet to see a bum film there. The last one we saw was Jindabyne, a powerful, well-acted and gripping Australian adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story.

They used to hold a yearly crime and thriller festival, Shots in the Dark, but this no longer runs. This is a pity as it managed to attract some big names, such as Tarantino: they had the British premier of Reservoir Dogs there. Also, Tarantino visited again when they showed Pulp Fiction.

Like many of the independent 'arts' cinemas the Broadway has now gone digital (although I have yet to see an all digital screening). It has four screens, a cafe, a mezzanine bar, a restaurant and a conference centre. It's a brilliant resource, and atypically-well-run for an 'arts' project. It also doesn't indulge the 'poseur' element of the arts crowd to the detriment of the non-aesthetically-endowed, ordinary people like me who just want to see good, well-made and interesting movies that don't fit the Hollywood formula.

You can read about it here:
http://www.broadway.org.uk/

Glad you and your pal have found a decent cinema. I tend to boycott Holywood films. I'm a member of Kino France and Votiv Kino which show mainly European and Asian films. I believe they have partner cinemas in Manchester and Dublin and probably other towns in the UK.
The last film I saw was Der Fälscher, the story of how the Nazis forged Bank of England paper money.
It was quite topical because about 3 years ago a hoard of forged fivers was found in Toplizsee in the Salzkammergut by an American treasure hunt team searching for Nazi gold.