Simon Mayo

So many thanks for reading out my email.

Hellboy, Dog Soldiers...

And The Descent, that was him, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, that Neil Marshall, yeah.

So many thanks for reading out my email.

Perhaps lightning will strike twice, and it appears to have done.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to see a special screening of Interstellar at the Royal Albert Hall in London, accompanied by a live orchestra and thunderous church organ.

The place was packed out, and the audience were truly engaged and respectful of each other and the movie, not a mobile phone in sight.

At several of the truly intense climactic moments, the entire place burst into spontaneous applause, and it reminded me of what it feels like to share the experience of a great movie in a way that we don't seem to in regular cinemas anymore.

I've been to a few of these events now, and each one leaves me with the same buzz.

Clearly, it's a trend that is catching on as the Albert Hall...

now has a yearly program of movies with live scores, and I see the O2 Arena has a few on its roster.

Perhaps this is one possible future of cinema, regaining its status as a true event.

Sure, it's more expensive than a regular cinema, but for a cinephile, it's absolutely worth it.

If you haven't attended one of these screenings, I highly recommend it.

Of course, it doesn't work for just any movie.

Tarantino's films, for example, are mainly filled with needle drops, so they wouldn't work in this context.

But anything with a classic score by William Zimmer, Goldsmith, Morricone, and their ilk play like gangbusters.

I quite fancy The Great Escape or The Magnificent Seven this way sometime.

That would be amazing.