“We are living in a land where sex and horror are the new Gods.” So pronounced Holly Johnson, lead singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, on the song Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, somewhere back in 1984 (an appropriate year for such a prophesy). He wasn’t far wrong. We...
I was wondering if everything you can think of, is better up on the big screen, in, you know, a movie? Sex, for sure. Sport, definitely. Landscapes? Perhaps. Faces? Maybe. Beauty? Absolutely. Food? Now, there’s an interesting one. The recently released art-house...
My students are often surprised to hear me say that there are a number of films I have seen well over 10 times at the cinema, in a lifetime devoted to the medium. And that’s not taking into account the numbers of viewings in a classroom, on video or DVD or on...
1941’s masterful Citizen Kane, unsurprisingly turned out to be a tough act to follow. Orson Welles, a child prodigy and star of theatre and radio was already well known to audiences across the world when he first arrived in Hollywood and was given carte blanche by RKO...
Now 91 (and long may she last), Elaine May is a fascinating 1970s Hollywood figure and one of the few (only?) mainstream women directors from the period – 1971’s A New Leaf (which is screening at the UPP in March, as part of the Oxford International Women’s Festival)...
Cinema lovers will continue to celebrate 2024 in style when the UPP screens a selection of films directed by the “none more maverick” German film director Werner Herzog in February. The season, which ties in with Radical Dreamer, the new BFI funded documentary about...
Few other actors crashed and burned quite as spectacularly as 80s homme du jour Mickey Rourke who, lest we forget, was not only one of the most exciting actors to emerge in that decade but was also, for a while, the coolest (and probably sexiest) guy on the planet....
Every year we poll our team to find out which new releases screened at the UPP that they enjoyed the most. In a year in which we’ve seen symphonic scandals, Alpine mysteries, and the arrival of a tiny walking, talking sea shell – let’s take a look at the top ten films...
There is a generally held assumption about British cinema that, in this country, we are very good at making gritty, realist and naturalistic cinema (which we are). Think Ken Loach (whose uncharacteristically disappointing swansong The Old Oak played at the UPP...
The darkest days of December might not be the obvious time to visit a mythical Scottish island called Summerisle but any chance to see the 1973 cult British folk horror masterpiece The Wicker Man up on the big screen is not an opportunity to be missed. It’s certainly...
Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!