The Brighton Odeon

Ah, the many, many, many films at the Brighton Odeon. Also, the place where I saw my first film in England: Elf. I can’t wait for the record to show that was not true, but the archivists have a very big job ahead of them before disproving that.

A neo-Brutalist masterpiece (which by definition means an exactly average in every way concrete building), this is a movie theater right on the beach, which makes sense because of all the windows you need when you run a cinema. It is also the theater closest to the train station, making it impossibly convenient to pop in, stop at Gelato Gusto for an even better than Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter cup treat, wait in the lobby 30 minutes for the commercials and trailers to be done, and voilà: convenience!

One should always be mindful of the dreaded theater 8 (tiny, and seats all to the left) and any night-time showings in theater 5, which always had an icy blast of AC no matter the time of year. As the company slowly made it harder for people to actually give them money, via cuttings of staff, and as the building fell into disrepair, it will always be my UK theater.