The 'Rex' Cinema, Berkhamsted

Date: Friday 16 October 2009

Warneford housemistress Liz Sears was brought up in Berkhamsted, and remembers her first cinema visit to the 'Rex' to see 'Bambi'! Nowadays the cinema has been completely refurbished in its original 1920s' 'Art Deco' style by local eccentric and benefactor James Hannaway, and it was to that venue that our Sixth Form Film Studies pupils travelled round the M25 yesterday.

The day included a tour of the projection room, courtesy a projectionist who has been doing that job since 1973 - almost as long as some people have been teaching at St Edmund's! - a chance to see the Audrey Tatou film, 'Coco Before Chanel' a bioscope of the life of Ms Chanel in her rise to fame - 'quite a goer' to quote Miss Sears, and a chance to spend three hours fighting the traffic on the return journey to Canterbury.

Apparently the boys got more out of it than they anticipated - it was not just a 'girly thing', and the only downside was that the Warneford team of Sears and Caiazza failed to get back in time to witness yet another Inter-House Quiz Competition triumph.