The Prince Charles: A theatre Quentin Tarantino calls the “Mecca” of cinemas
As a lifelong cinephile with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the medium, Quentin Tarantino singling out a specific theatre as being one of the most lauded locations on the face of the entire planet is about as high as praise can be for a solitary independent establishment.
Ever since his younger days, the future filmmaker spent as much time as humanly possible in the sanctity of his local cinema, where he brushed up on his knowledge of everything from the classics and B-tier horrors to obscure genre fare and his beloved grindhouse.
When Tarantino tried to bring the latter to the masses alongside close friend and regular collaborator Robert Rodriguez in the film of the same name, it was made abundantly clear that the average cinemagoing public did not match his enthusiasm for gnarly exploitation flicks playing back-to-back with an intermission.
Doing what any wealthy devotee of the art form would do, though, he simply purchased his very own. Since 2007, Tarantino has owned the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, where he curates programmes of the movies that inspired him, showcases his own work and that of the directors he admires, and, of course, slips in the odd cult classic or ten.
However, when it was time to wax lyrical on cinemas other than his own, the two-time Academy Award winner opted for a staple of the London film scene that opened in 1962 and endures to this day as the only independently owned and operated theatre in the city’s West End.
To commemorate the release of Kill Bill: Volume 2 in the United Kingdom, Uma Thurman referred to the Prince Charles Cinema as “Quentin’s favourite UK cinema” He’d already described it as not only “everything an independent movie theatre should be,” but. “for lovers of quality films, this is Mecca.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Tarantino reflected on his days watching “Godzilla movies, Italian and German sex comedies, the German Edgar Wallace thrillers” in rundown grindhouse cinemas, which led him to anoint the Prince Charles as London’s very own “queen’s jewel” that he was touched to find himself accepted in from his very first feature.
“I was so honoured when Reservoir Dogs hit so big there that they started playing it at midnight, and all the lads would show up in the black suits with little squirt guns,” he said. “I couldn’t have been honoured more.” It’s a location he holds very closely to his heart, then, especially when he’s willing to go out on a limb and celebrate it as the finest place to watch movies in the entirety of Britain.
Of course, there is no shortage of film fans who feel exactly the same way, with the Prince Charles remaining a staple of the city even in the face of multiplex chains and cinema’s rampant commercialisation.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.