FAREWELL TOWER CINEMAS

Earlier this month the Tower Cinemas ceased trading.

The Towers, as I always knew it, was one of my Newcastle touchstones.

I had been going there since I was a young girl, my grandparents taking me to there to see movies. I cannot remember the movies, but I remember the building. It seemed so large and so grown up to me. I loved the choc tops, I always loved the choc tops.

As I grew older, I could take myself to the movies and this was always my cinema of choice. I loved heading into town, first by bus then in my little blue mini when I first got my license. Once I started work I got a Roster Day, my favourite way to spend that day off was in the cinema. Back then, the Kensington and the Lyrique were still around and I would go through the session times in the paper at work and see how many I could see in a day back to back!

I loved that escape!!!

Around 1992 time I joined Newcastle Film Society, and have been a member every year since. This meant every Sunday evening was spent at The Towers enjoying foreign and independent films. What joy!!

I always loved leaving the cinema by the back of the theatre, and walking down the creepy stairs in the inner bowels of the cinema and coming out to the street, sometimes muggy, sometimes raining. Everyone shuffling out, discussing the film we just saw.

It was there I met my ex, we watched films together and fell in love. Not long after we started to see each other, I remember him taking me to a movie there and then right out the front of The Towers, he grabbed me and kissed me passionately, saying during the time we were not dating he always wanted to do that to me each Sunday night. It was the spot we'd stop and chat after the film, before heading our separate ways. 

I also remember having a terrible argument with the same guy in the same spot some years later after a film...sigh. It was Life is Beautiful, and he was berating me for 'ugly crying' in the cinema and making him embarrassed. I really should have seen the writing on the wall then!

Over the years The Towers introduced many fabulous film festivals, The Travelling Sydney Film Festival, French (my favourite), Italian, Documentaries and so on. And they always showed Foreign and independent films and classics. 

I remember seeing North by Northwest there on the big screen for the first time. Not the first time I had seen the film but the first on the big screen and I was blown away.

I even wrote film reviews for The Towers for a while. My friend Athena, showed Linda and myself the ad and we both applied and each got the job. We scored some free tickets and had to put in reviews. It was a great time and we got to see some interesting films.

You know the thing about The Towers was you always ran into people you knew there. You could turn up solo for an event and there was always someone to chat to and sit with.

I spent loads of time there by myself - during the day and the night - and a lot of time with friends and on dates.

I have so many memories, it is difficult to contain them all.

Every year I do my Oscar Watch, where I try to watch as many films as I can, The Towers are almost always the location of my watching. To me, great movies and film and The Towers go hand in hand.  Oh and a choc top!!!

Sure the toilets really needed a do over, the seats needed replacing, and there were odd smells in certain places. But this was part of the charm. The huge lobby, with the memorabilia, the seats, and the chilly air con (the only part of the building seemingly). 

The carpet is ingrained in my memory and those gorgeous thick red curtains. Sitting up the back of Cinema 3 every Sunday night at Film Society, looking from the top floor down to King Street and the Terraces, or seeing the fairy light in the trees in Crown Street. Having dinner before or after a film. Hanging out at Foghorn pre-movie in recent years.

I fell in love with so many films, it is difficult to even start naming them. I remember seeing When Harry Met Sally on a double with War of the Roses, I fell in love with When Harry Met Sally and saw it a few more times before it finished it's run. It is still a top 5 film for me. I saw Cascablanca - my all time favourite film - there twice. I laughed so hard at High Fidelity I got looks from my sisters, although they did agree John Cusack's character and I were similar. I discovered Fellini, and Almodovar, and my love of Gerard Depardieu and French Film. 

I first met The Dude from The Big Lebowksi there, had my mind blown by Being John Malkovich, fell in love with Ethan Hawke (and Julie Delpy) in the entire Before trilogy, marveled at Night on Earth and the Three Colours trilogy, Held my breathe not once but twice watching Wages of Fear, Met Amelie, Saw Nosteratu with an organ accompaniment, laughed at Chaplin and Keaton, became entranced by Wings of Desire and Paris Texas, was delighted by Cinema Paradiso, and rocked out to Bohemian Rhapsody.

These and many more are what makes fond memories and ones I will keep with me forever.

Why money wasn't thrown at this gem I have no idea. It seems so incredibly wrong and dreadful. There are no cinemas in Newcastle at all now, this is such a shame.

The Towers wasn't just any old cinema, it was a special place, that showed special films and offered the more discerning individual an escape, an escape that brought with it the history of a sacred place.

Vale Towers and thanks for the memories!!!!