Crowds flock to reopened Lorne Theatre

THE Lorne Theatre is back in business, and crowds flocked to its first screenings held on Friday last week and over the weekend.

The co-founders of Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema & Bar and Melbourne’s Rooftop Cinema announced in late October they had taken over the management of the cinema in Mountjoy Parade and opened it as promised on December 1, with a 4K restoration of Talking Heads concert movie Stop Making Sense the first film to be shown.

This was followed on Saturday with a sold-out screening of surfing/sailboat documentary Calypte.

Lorne Theatre’s now cinema manager Jessa Shields said it was an excellent opening weekend.

“We had Stop Making Sense as the very first film, and then that was followed by Renaissance, a film by Beyonce – both of those are concert films; one of those is older and one is newer.

“It was really a party kind of vibe for the first night of the theatre opening; concert films back to back.

Lorne Theatre held its first screening under new management on December 1.

“It felt like a symbolic way of signalling what the programming is going to be like for Lorne Theatre going ahead.

“Both of those films are such great fun and it was really nice on Friday night. We had a lot of locals come out to support the theatre, there were people both upstairs in the mezzanine and downstairs in the stalls, there was some dancing in the aisles, clapping after each song finished and a bit of singing along; it was a really nice atmosphere.”.

She said Lorne Theatre’s programming would be a mix of new release films (Saltburn, Maestro and Wonka), series linked thematically (the coming “Christmas Crackers” lineup of Gremlins, Home Alone, A Muppet Christmas Carol, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Love Actually), and films screened in partnership with guests (Saturday’s showing of Calypte, which was in association with Torquay surf company needessentials).

The cinema is now being operated by the co-founders of Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema & Bar and Melbourne’s Rooftop Cinema.

She said she was particularly excited about this month’s screenings of The Boy and the Heron, as it was legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki’s first film in more than a decade.

As of earlier this week, the Lorne Theatre has films listed up to January 21, 2024, but Ms Shields said film fans should check the website and the theatre’s social media pages regularly as more programming would be added between now and then.

For more information, screening times and to book tickets, head to lornetheatre.ourgoldenage.com.au