With a tag line like that it must be something good, right? I have been meaning to go to a Secret Cinema for ages so when this one came up in the centre of town it seemed like a perfect idea, especially the weekend before Christmas when festive fatigue has set in. (The photos are all really, 'atmospheric', ie dark as my trusty camera phone does not like 1940s style lighting.)
We received our instructions to meet at Barbican, to dress in 1940s style, lots of black and set off in eager anticipation. Standing at Barbican tube watching everyone arrive was amazing, so many beautiful outfits and such a lot of effort had been put in by the majority of people, and it’s nice to be a part of something like this.
Once our party had assembled we were directed to a meeting point round the corner from the tube where we waited until four ‘soldiers’ formed us up into lines and marched us (not an easy feat in heels and a pencil skirt) through Smithfields and to the door of a disused warehouse. En route we were made aware of an ongoing funeral for ‘Harry’ and saw many shady figures loitering on corners, all of which created an amazing atmosphere.
We walked into a hotel reception where we were greeted and directed on into the warehouse. We exchanged our money for Viennese I’m not sure whats, purchased a bottle of wine and set about exploring.
Over four and a bit floors were spread a bar with a live band, gaming and dancing, the offices of the four countries, England, France, America and Russia, who shared Vienna in the 1940s and numerous offices, bedrooms, attics and even a train platform. Throughout all of it actors ran about, shouted, stages assignations and at one point attempted to sell us black market stockings (Me: Oh, lovely but not really my style...).
Mary and I nearly became Communists after visiting the Russian attaché's office and poor Michael ended up marching about being yelled at. Luckily we escaped just before being branded with a red star and made our way back to more bohemian setting of the bar.
We feasted like kings on amazing hot dogs with saurkraut, quaffed mulled wine to keep warm and generally spent a great deal of time pointing, gasping and being entertained. A funeral procession and a fatal shooting being two of the scenes going on around us.
A siren went off, calling us all in to watch the film and I tottered in on my heels to grab a space in the barn, snuggled under a blanket. Have you guessed what the film was yet? The Third Man, a British film noir set in post WWII Vienna following out of luck American pulp fiction writer Holly Martins as he investigates the suspicious death of his friend Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles. There is intrigue, dastardly doings, the girl, the British officer trying to do his best and all the other things you would imagine. Cut glass accents and much understated acting. It was wonderful.
The best line of the night goes to Orson Welles' character Harry Lime. When Holly questions him about his involvement in a blackmarket penicillin scam and the harm it is wreaking on the Viennese population, Lime says by way of explanation:
"You know what the fellow said - in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
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