I went to the Savoy Cinema on Sunday evening to see Oceans Thirteen.  Unable to find anyone else who wanted to see it who hadn’t seen it before, I went on my own.

The Savoy is in Lenton, a suburb of Nottingham near the University that these days is nearly entirely inhabited by students.  At this time of year, when the University term has finished, the area is almost entirely deserted.

I do like the Savoy, and haven’t been there for ages. It’s the only cinema left in Nottingham that was there during the war.  Their ads call it the only independent cinema in the city. The large screen has been subdivided, and ten years ago or so (it was after I moved here) they opened another screen in a small room, with only 50 seats.  It feels almost like a living room, but has a full size projector in the room behind.

And it’s that screen I was in on Sunday evening.  On my own.

The point of going there was to help send more money their way in their off-season.  Now I’m worrying I made them spend far more money to show a film just to me than I put over the counter.  There were a few other people there seeing other films, but probably between us, there were fewer punters than staff – they had a barman, a ticket collector, a projectionist and a box-office woman.

Still, they’re showing lots more films I still want to see, so I will probably go back.  Maybe even this evening.