Rob Denman has always had a passion for old theatres. But he’s stepping out an extra mile with his latest project, working with film buff Satria Leech.
The pair have opened Revival House at the heritage-listed Como Theatre which many will remember as the Cygnet Cinema where they are showing 35mm films such as the Dark Knight Trilogy, Grease, Citizen Kane, Titanic, and a Harry Potter
marathon.
Rob says Revival House will be a part of the broader Preston Street Arts Collective which is being set up with a group of people and organisations like Theatre 180 and Millennium Kids with a goal to create events that are going to activate the Como.
“We also want to nurture and grow up-and-coming artists. We want to make the Como accessible for young artists because at the end of the day it’s very difficult for them to go into the likes of the Perth Concert Hall or even the Astor or the Regal. It’s a very expensive exercise and we want to make this place very accessible for musicians and artists of all kinds,” he says.
“The film will be one part of the Preston Street Arts Collective. There are other things like Theatre 180 who do their theatre shows, then if we want to do comedy, we’ve got a comedy gala coming in. It’s going to be a very diverse room. That’s what we want with a focus of keeping our heritage with film.”
Those 35mm films are difficult to find, but according to Rob deliver a far more satisfying experience than the digital renditions we’ve become used to in our cinemas.
Watching movies made on film has a warmth and depth of colour that digital can’t duplicate.
“Watching a movie on film is like stepping back in time and experiencing cinema in its purest form, where every frame is a work of art carefully crafted by the hands of talented filmmakers. It is a truly magical experience that captures the essence of the golden age of filmmaking.”
Unfortunately, many of the 35mm prints were destroyed by the movie companies when films were converted to digital, but Rob says a lot of the cinema workers kept the films.
“There’s one sad story of mine. I used to do the distribution for Roadshow over here and the head of Roadshow rang me and asked if I wanted all their prints.
“At the time I had no storage, so I said ‘no’ and they destroyed them all.
“But saying that, a lot of prints went to the National Sound and Film Archives, so you can actually access the films out of there. Since we’re in Perth it’s not a cheap exercise to get the prints over. You’re looking at roughly 20 kilos on average for a film.”
Rob says they are also acquiring films from around Australia, the UK and New Zealand.
“At the moment we’re acquiring 220 prints of different films and building a catalogue of classic films.
“On top of that, because of the success of Oppenheimer on 70mm, a lot of the movie companies are now starting to press a lot of their new, big films on film again.
“We’re showing Poor Things, which won the Academy Award this year on film and the new Joker is coming out on film, we’ve got a print of the latest Ghostbusters coming in from America, so we’ve got that coming in. It’s starting to come back, it’s exactly like records.”
Rob says the problem with film is it takes up a lot of space. The average film comes up with anywhere from five to eight canisters of film.
“Then you’ve got to join it all up so there’s a lot of work to it.”
Rob says they also plan to lend films to other cinemas around the country.
“They’ve got to be people who know how to handle them because they are so rare.”
Prints are fragile. Rob says he took out a print of Edward Scissorhands the other day which had gone to vinegar.
“If you can imagine it, it just becomes this gooey mess and smells like a really bad pack of vinegar chips. It’s a disgusting smell and we are losing quite a few prints.
“But 35mm is not dead it’s definitely coming back.”
Rob was originally promotions and sales manager at Festival Records before opening his own private theatrette, the Jaffa Room followed by music venue The Astor Theatre and now Revival House.
Satria Leech has been involved with the movie industry for his entire career.
The pair have a passion to preserve and celebrate the heritage-listed Como Theatre, built in 1938 by local identity and film entrepreneur James Stiles. It was the first purpose-built sound cinema in the suburbs, setting the stage for a rich cinematic legacy in the heart of Perth.
“I have a passion for this building. There’s been something about it. I’m a bit obsessed with my old theatres. After the Astor I went into hibernation and just always kept looking for an old space and then I caught up with Todd Stiles and we were chatting about it.
“I met the new owners of the property and then pretty much came up with the idea because the whole of Preston Street is dedicated to film.”
For more information go to www.therevivalhouseperth.com.au/.
