March marks the 110th birthday for the Phoenix Picturehouse, Oxford's oldest cinema and place the whole team is fond of. As part of this, Daily Info ran a competition asking people for some of their best memories of the venue. We've collected some of the best entries below.
The film festival
My favourite memory of the Phoenix Picturehouse was a Stanley Kubrick festival they held more than 10 years ago! I went on all days of the festival and my favourite was watching The Shining on the big screen.
At the end of the film, the entire cinema was in complete silence, everyone amazed with the ‘powerful’ masterpiece we had just watched!
Keeping audiences sane
When my son was a baby the weekly baby screenings were the highlight of my week and maybe saved my sanity.
Late night double bill
My partner and I still fondly remember the late night movies that the Phoenix put on in Michaelmas term of 1982; a wonderful chance to unwind after a week of hard studying and see some classics on the big screen (accompanied by the legendary Phoenix rum truffles), before braving a brisk cold walk back to College in the early hours. Hard to pick a favourite, but the Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers double bill of Flying Down To Rio and Follow the Fleet stays in the memory.
Introduction to a favourite
My fav memory of the cinema will forever be seeing the Jurassic Park premiere for my 8th birthday!
Back in the day when they still gave out programmes at the cinema - which I hid behind the entire film, absolutely terrified and amazed. It’s still my favourite film to this day as I get major childhood-awe nostalgia every time I watch it.
The big screen experience
My favourite memory at the Phoenix was watching The Godfather for the first time. It was so special to have the same experience as those who saw the film upon its release. Certain films are worth that big-screen experience. This was one of them. Even though many of its most powerful moments have been pastiched, alluded to, and parodied to hell by now, it still had many surprises. Seeing those grainier, old films on the big screen tends to highlight how powerful they remain. This was the case with The Godfather!
Summer love
My favourite memory of the Phoenix dates back around 20 years, when I lived fairly close to the cinema. I was lucky enough to have a long summer holiday from work and, as I was also a Friend of the Phoenix, I would go to the Phoenix once, or even twice, a week over the summer. Walking to the cinema in the sunshine for a matinée, and watching a variety of interesting films at the Phoenix over the holidays, is a very happy memory indeed!
The first date
In the late summer of 2021 I got chatting to a nice woman in a pub garden. We talked a lot about our favourite films. At the end of the evening we swapped numbers and later that night she sent me a text and invited me to watch Another Round at the Phoenix Picturehouse the following Sunday.
This was our first date.
In the darkness of the cinema, I stole glances at her as her face was illumined by the film. We shared a popcorn but were careful not to touch hands. At one point, despite my phone being off, it switched itself on because an alarm was set. I panicked and fumbled around trying to switch it off. She later told me that at that moment she thought that ‘this is never going to work’. But luckily she forgave me and we have been happily together ever since. We still go the Phoenix Picturehouse on dates. I hope we always will.
We don’t mind our hands brushing each other as we reach for popcorn.
A Star is Born
I have many happy memories from the picture house! but my all time favourite would have to be from about 20 years ago (when I was about 10 years old) & the short film I starred in was shown there!!
It was so awesome to see myself on the big screen! and to top it off - 2 exchange students had seen us all sat front row and come up and asked us for an autograph! I was overjoyed and felt like a Hollywood movie star!
The film was made and funded by 'The Rap Yard' which was a youth club I used to attend on the Cowley Road - Such great, great memories!
I love our hometown Oxford and the Phoenix Picturehouse is such a nostalgic, fantastic part of our city!
New Year's Double
My favourite Phoenix memory is hard to pick because I have so many (I used to live behind the cinema) but must be from New Year's Day 2009 when the cinema put on a double bill of Che: Part One and Part Two. The cinema was packed with cinema buffs and those looking for something to do on a cold January day when they were hungover and the atmosphere was no less fun for it. I nipped home for a cup of tea and the loo (it was pretty packed) in the interval and by the end we all felt we'd experienced something pretty special.
Cinematic fight
My favourite memory at the Phoenix was watching Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer in the fantastic screen two. I remember how the tension of the film bled into the audience, and a feud broke out between two elderly audience members as the credits rolled at the end!
A writer in attendance
My favourite memory was watching Sir Michael Morpurgo’s new release, Waiting for Anya on 21st February 2020 with Sir Michael attending in person. Such a magical moment with the audience filled by school children and just before the Covid restrictions kicked in. Question and answer session was also held by the great master of writing.
Private party
For years I have enjoyed going to the Phoenix, a social and cultural mainstay for me - first dates, special World Cup viewings, a drink in the bar after work.
But my favourite memory is from April 2012 when, after a particularly difficult and challenging year, I treated myself to a private hire party upstairs at the Phoenix! The tables were cleared away, I was allowed to bring in my own music, decorations, and snacks. The staff were amazing and very helpful. We danced, drank and snacked until late in the night. It was a birthday to remember, and it helped bring some much-needed sunshine to an otherwise dark year.
Surprise!
My memories from your movie theatre are many and varied – laughing silently but uncontrollably at 50 Shades of Grey after 2 large glasses of red wine, shocking my British friends by taking them to see The Guard and seeing their jaws drop at the opening scene, sitting with a non-cinema going friend and listening to her whisper louder and louder throughout the duration of the grim and apocalyptic The Road ‘Is it nearly over, good God is it nearly over?’…
But my no 1 memory is organising a surprise birthday party drinks gathering for my friend Claire in your upstairs bar, for her 40th about 8 years ago.
She has mentioned that she wanted to see Hidden Figures at your fine cinema, so we decided to pretend that was her ‘birthday treat’ and get her popcorn and a Coke and have her believe that was all she was getting for her 40th.
However, unbeknownst to her, I had booked the upstairs bar room for a surprise party.
I made it an ALL GIRLS night out, just to celebrate being 40th, and us gals proceeded on the night to march her into the theatre that night whilst all the uninvited male friends (all supposedly at home or to ill to come to the film or who thought it sounded like a girls film) knew from the point that we entered the cinema, they had 2 hours to get the bar upstairs ready for the surprise.
I set the subterfuge even further and I spoke to the Indian restaurant across the road and explained that when we came over and asked for a table for 8 persons after the film, they should tell us they were too busy and to come back in 30 minutes. We would then casually mention popping back to the bar at the Phoenix to my friend and then go there to wait for the restaurant, and it would be even more of a surprise when she arrived up there. I was feeling so smug with myself at the level of mystery I was planning to create.
All things were going to plan. We got her into the cinema without seeing anyone she knew in the area, as the boys were visibly hanging about waiting for the cue to start to party plan in the bar. After the movie, I said I had booked a table in the Indian restaurant across the road. We headed over and as it was early evening, the restaurant was completely empty. I asked if they had a table for 8 ready – the guy looked at me, trying to remember what he was supposed to say…. He stayed silent. He could not recall our conversation from a few days earlier. I realised this.
I said again, more pronounced ‘DO YOU HAVE A TABLE READY FOR 8 PEOPLE OR ARE YOU MAYBE TOO BUSY…?’ as my voice echoed through the empty room. ‘Ooooooh yes’ the maître d’ recalled ‘We are too busy now, ma’am, please come back in half an hour.’
My birthday friend, upon seeing the empty tables and chairs, suddenly steps up and starts to argue with the restaurant staff, saying ‘How can you be too busy, the whole place is empty…!’. The restaurant staff start to look at me with pleading and confused eyes as my friend continues to question why we cannot have a table right now… I have no idea what to do. So I just say very loudly ‘OK WE WILL COME BACK IN 30 MINUTES’ and reverse our whole party out of the door.
We get outside, and then start to suggest going to the bar upstairs at the Phoenix but my friend is still livid that the Indian restaurant staff are claiming to be too busy for us… and in the end, we had to push her up the stairs to the bar, as she indignantly continued to complain about the restaurant staff.
Finally, we got up there and all the rest of the guests jumped up and shouted SURPRISE and frightened the daylights out of her. The room was lovely, the staff were kind, there was food and cakes and balloons and drinks and music and we had a perfect party there for the evening and she had no idea it was coming.
However, I will always remember the stress of it all and how pleased I was that it all worked out in the end. I did, of course, have to go over later to the staff in the Indian and apologise for the barrage they had received earlier because of my ‘cunning plan…’ I am not sure they ever worked out what the heck was going on that evening!
Best films
People also submitted their favourite films with The Fellowship of the Ring, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Limbo and Parasite all being picked. And here's why one person picked their favourite film:
Best film I've seen at the Phoenix was Princess Mononoke, a mid-day weekend showing some time in the early 2000s. I was too young to understand everything about the story, but it left enough of an impression that I still remember it now.
Happy Birthday Phoenix Picturehouse!