Get ready cinephiles, going to the cinema just got a whole lot queerer
BY HEBE HANCOCK, IMAGE BY LIONSGATE
A new independent cinema billing itself as London’s first dedicated LGBTQIA screen has officially opened in Bermondsey Square, SE1.
Named after Dorothy Arzner, the pioneering queer filmmaker who became the first woman to direct a talkie with 1928’s Manhattan Cocktail, The Arzner is a cinema and cocktail bar rolled into one. It’s the latest project from Simon Burke and Piers Greenlees, the pair behind LGBTQIA pub The Rising in Elephant & Castle, which launched last year.
Housed in the former Kino Bermondsey site, which closed in January 2023, the revamped venue features a single screen, red carpets, faux-leather seating and a bar adorned with portraits of queer icons like Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich. Cocktails are named after Hollywood legends – think Rock Hudson and Bette Davis – and tickets will cost around £15, with a £25 monthly membership option.
“The licence will allow us to operate a safe space for all in one of the most LGBTQ+ densely populated areas of the country,” Burke said at a Southwark Council meeting last year.
This week’s programme includes a run of cult queer favourites: Nowhere, Gregg Araki’s surreal day-in-the-life of disaffected LA teens; the candy-coloured high school black comedy Jawbreaker; drag road trip classic To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar; Girl, Interrupted, the 1999 drama set inside a psychiatric hospital, and But I’m A Cheerleader, Jamie Babbit’s biting satire of conversion therapy.
With its mix of retro glamour, queer history and sharp programming, The Arzner looks set to become a landmark addition to London’s LGBTQIA cultural scene.
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