Past Event: DIRTY DANCING (12)

Dirty Dancing is possibly the most iconic romantic dance film of all time. We have never heard so many conversations involving so many quotes, namely ‘nobody puts baby in the corner!’.

Some knew every word of the film, line-for-line and others watched the classic for the first time. For both first-timers and those who were watching Dirty Dancing for the hundredth time, everyone shared a wonderful evening of outdoor cinema.

Drinks flowed, popcorn was popped and crunched as the sun set. We particularly appreciated the group of very lovely women who brought along watermelons. Thank you for making all of our nights that bit more colourful!

Patrick (Swayze) & Prosecco, Patrick and Pimm’s, Patrick and popcorn became popular orders at the bar. We’re sure this will catch on. And we’re also sure that the next time Dirty Dancing is on our big screen the Patrick menu with make a comeback.

Past Event: THE GREAT GATSBY (12)

We do love a good pair up of a perfect film in a perfect setting. The secret garden of The Gonville Hotel in the heart of Cambridge has been a beautiful location for many evenings of magical outdoor cinema already, but this evening did feel particularly special.

Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel is a story of worlds colliding, marrying and contrasting, a story sprinkled in sparkle and grandeur. With Parker’s Piece, traffic, beeping horns and business just on the other side of the towering trees behind the screen, the beauty and tranquility of The Gonville’s garden had a serendipitous atmosphere of escapism into a dream for the night. Much like Gatsby’s parties.

Prosecco, Champagne (and beer and ciders), rose bushes, blossom trees, the grand private suite of the hotel the backdrop to The Enchanted Cinema Bar, it all felt very beautifully curated, as though the garden was made for us all to be watching The Great Gatsby there!

Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan star in Baz Luhrmann’s modern and typically eccentric double-Oscar-winning adaptation of this classic tale and the whole evening was a wonderful journey through art and fine storytelling by one of our favourite directors.

First shout out has to go to the wonderful Gina Leonard. Gina is a local singer-songwriter and her voice and character alike are just beautiful. Between songs she told stories of her music to the audience as everyone got comfortable in deckchairs and sat under the dappled shade of trees that drape the border of The Gonville Hotel’s secret garden.

Being the most recent film that we’ve screened to date, we wanted so much to bring this epic back to the big screen so soon after it had been in multiplex theatres because we needed to redress its backdrop! To screen such a visually stunning work, under stars, alongside Nemitode’s light installation, with fairy lights overhead casting a glow on the audience from above… it had to be done!

Much like Mad Max: Fury Road, the evening panned out as a magical journey whose story ended much in the way it began. Though in the case of audience members the full circle started and ended with a lovely buzz and smiles rather than in post-apocalyptic scenes of arid (though beautiful) landscapes!

Massive thanks to everyone who was involved in making the evening so so magical.

Big love from Team EC

Photos below taken by EC’s wonderful Lauren Ridgwell

Past Event: PULP FICTION (18)

Where better to screen such an iconic film than to the backdrop of the iconic Grantchester Meadows?  We popped up again in the beer garden of The Red Lion Grantchester.

The musicians who performed before the screening complimented the Pulp Fiction soundtrack perfectly. The audience dotted between the bar and sitting snuggly on deckchairs.

First up was Cambridge-born Edmund Stubbs who currently gigs between London and Cambridge.  Ed’s a good friend of Enchanted Cinema and it was great to have him playing his magical folky music with us in Grantchester.

Musicians from Cambridge’s Unpluggedin Collective followed Ed’s set.  A seriously talented local duo, Garance Moonflower and Adam Dean on guitar took us on a beautiful journey through blended genres from hip hop to folk and Tom Petite was up last to serenade the audience into dusk over the meadows.  His gravelly voice and foot-stomping had everyone clapping and ready for the evening of Pulp Fiction under the stars to unfold.

A big part of Enchanted Cinema’s ethos as an independent cinema is that we want our big screen to support and showcase the work of local filmmakers as well as the likes of Tarantino. For this event Jonnie Howard made a short film for Enchanted Cinema, Rock, Paper, Cleaver. We were super humbled and honoured for these guys to put together a short specifically for this screening.

Oh The Great British weather! Under June’s stars and rain we had massive love for our enchanting audience for all pulling off our stylish waterproof ponchos so well.

If you were to stand for a while on the other side of the velvet curtains draped between the garden’s cinema and the pub, you’d notice the silence (everyone’s locked into the film through our wireless headsets) would be broken intermittently by giggles and the odd spontaneous sing-along, namely to Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell. What a scene!

In these blog posts it’s often hard to describe just how magical an atmosphere is created during an Enchanted Cinema pop-up. From chats at our cinema bar under fairy lights, to moments of collective laughter during scenes that many of us have seen countless times, but for the first time under the stars. We experience and share the beauty of watching a film in the open air, together.

Team EC

Photos below are taken by Lauren Ridgwell