It is going to be such a shame when the Lighthouse closes down again. Yes, it's got €1.75m from the Department of Arts, Sport & Tourism as well as the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board to pay for its reopening last May. But let's face it, as a 'commercially operated cultural cinema which presents a diverse and individual programme of the best Irish, independent, foreign-language, arthouse and classic cinema,' well, it's fucked.Set back from Smithfield Market square at a sort of sub-square in front of the underground car park, the Lighthouse's potential for attracting passing customers essentially consists of a painted pane of glass obscured by a nut stand. At 6pm on a Friday evening, this huge swell of passing trade amounted to two scumbags testing out a radio-controlled monster truck. 'Ya hear it changing gear and then it just takes off,' the one without his hand on the controller tells a passer-by who had asked for no elaboration.
But back to the cinema. You walk in and think you're in an art gallery, such is the abundant use of white paint and sharply defined corners. There's a café/wine bar on the ground floor, and then the screens are on two underground levels accessed by a nice sloping staircase. I bump into a woman I'm sure I recognise from the paper as the co-owner on a mezzanine half-way down. She directs me to Screen 2 like your average €9 an hour; it may go without saying at this point that I've seen about five customers, all for coffee upstairs.
The auditorium itself is really nice, coloured seats with longer headrests and more leg room, perfect for slouchers like yours truly. Myself and seven others enjoyed the only moderately funny but entertaining 'Hors de Prix (Priceless)'. Two trailers, no adverts. Yes, you read correctly. It's worth going for that alone.
At first glance there seemed to be no goodies around, but I did notice a small amount of popcorn, as well as wine and comfy-looking stools, on sale to no one in particular in a corner of the basement level. It struck me that this would be a great place in which to get drunk while admiring the architecture in splendid isolation.
Which is where we came in. I'm not sure what length of a business plan they've got, but 'profit in year three', as they say, for a second arthouse cinema in trashy, sport-obsessed centre-right dominated Dublin? I don't think so. There just aren't enough cultural cinephiles out there. I suspect the Taoiseach isn't the only one who won't say the word 'recession', if you know what I mean. But in the meantime, it's an unspoilt structural and cultural gem. Go, see, do.
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History of Lighthouse Cinema
Feature in The Ticket by Michael Dwyer
