Award Winning Independent Cinema

City symphonies have been a feature of cinema from the off, with everywhere from Soviet Russia to Liverpool (and a lot of places besides) getting the whole rhapsodic treatment given to them. 

But what about Plymouth? Any rhapsodies for us down here? Anyone…? 

Plymouth and cinema have been rare bedfellows, it’s pretty fair to say – Jill Cragie’s peerless The Way We Live being an honourable exception, documenting as it did our fair city’s resurgam from the ashes of the Second World War. Recently though, we’ve seemed more like somewhere for the great and good (Spielberg, Burton, Eggers) to elbow their way past so they can reach more pastoral filming locations. 

That’s a real shame, because we surely have all the grit, guts and history you need for a perfect storyline to write itself. Well, if it’s proper guts you’re looking for, you can look no further than Colin Gregg’s Remembrance (1982). Here we follow a group of navy ratings ready to let off some steam before they head off on HMS Raleigh, right on the brink of the Falklands War (although they didn’t know that at the time it was made). They’re young, they’re reckless, they’re sailors, they’re looking for a night to remember (if they’re able) – so of course they’re heading out to the legendary Union St… Oh dear indeed… 

Anyone who grew up here around this time (eighties as shown in the film, nineties for me) will no doubt feel a profound pull of recognition to see the Street they (mis)spent their youth kicking around – and probably getting a kicking or two as well – reflected back at them on the big screen. The interiors of locally-famous haunts The Two Trees and The Phoenix feature within and are bound to set a few nostalgic fingers pointing as well. The film itself is pretty much plotless, being less a perfectly structured narrative and more a series of hazy interweaved vignettes – all the better no doubt to depict a messy night in Plymouth’s most infamous nightspots. And I suppose it’s not wrong to say this film shows Union Street in a sort of ‘heyday’ – so lively as it clearly was, certainly compared to the Arctic tundra that stands there now. Almost makes you miss the darned place. 

The stellar cast is noticeably juvenile – including babyfaced Gary Oldman in his big-screen debut – as well as younger models of Timothy Spall and John Altman (who grew up to be Eastenders’ Nick Cotton). It’s also clearly coming from a youthful point of view as well – Gregg apparently drew inspiration from his time as a student at Plymouth Art College in the seventies, aided and abetted by his screenwriter friend Hugh Stoddart (both in their thirties at the time it was made). 

All of which makes Remembrance the perfect fit for “Rip It Up” – a season of films celebrating what it feels like to be young in the city. Remembrance features in this season alongside Blinded by the Light and Beautiful Thing – worthy companions to be sure. Do note though that Remembrance is the only one of these coming from a distinctly Janner bent, arriving with booze in its veins and sick on its shoes, which pretty much makes it an unmissable night out.    

So, are you ready to relive the best-worst days of your life? Let’s Rip It Up and start again…

Remembrance is screening from 2nd – 8th October, with an introduction on Friday 2nd from screenwriter Hugh Stoddart.

Written by IC Jones