The Roxy: it’s a little bit foxy

On Thursday I took a step back in time to the early 1930s and entered the Roxy Cinema. Dan will, I’m sure, tell you more later about just what sort of cinema the Roxy is. For those who can­’t wait it’s the first pur­pose-built 3D cinema in the coun­try, with the best tech­no­logy out there. For Tom A and I, our vis­it was just about attempt­ing to absorb the visu­al exper­i­ence that is the Roxy. The Roxy began screen­ing silent films in 1928 as the Cap­it­ol Theatre. It devolved into a shop­ping court and in 2003 was saved from the wreck­ing ball by its cur­rent own­ers. Today it’s been restored with lov­ing care and atten­tion by Jam­ie & Ann Selkirk (he’s the guy who edited the Lord of the Rings films), Tania Rodger & Richard Taylor (they star­ted a tiny work­shop called Weta), Jonny McK­en­zie & fam­ily (he’s Mr Hawthorn Lounge and pro­pri­et­or of oth­er such fine estab­lish­ments like Hooch and Cuckoo), Jo-Anne Lun­don and Tim Alex­an­der (long time movie fans with a focus on tech­no­logy) and Valentina and Daminda Dias (loc­al food­ies and co-own­ers of Polo Res­taur­ant). The Roxy is all things shiny and new, fea­tur­ing the very best in mod­ern cinema-going exper­i­ence, but the vibe is dis­tinctly 1930s, with painstak­ing care and atten­tion made to every detail from the wall­pa­per in the bath­rooms, to the car­pet on the floor and the old-fash­ioned candy bar (full of beau­ti­ful boiled sweeties, some spe­cially impor­ted from the UK) at the tick­et office. Most of the cinema is bespoke designed and craf­ted to a level and qual­ity that is stun­ning. Much of what you see at the Roxy is cour­tesy of the boat-build­ing team at Weta Stu­di­os. Jam­ie Selkirk traveled the world check­ing out oth­er cinemas for inspir­a­tion, and pulled some amaz­ing ideas from inside his own head for what he wanted the Roxy to be. From there he worked with Weta and where pos­sible loc­al busi­ness to make it hap­pen. Much of the col­our palette and design in the cinema came dir­ect from the cof­fee machine based in the foy­er. Just look up from the machine and you’ll see an amaz­ing retro lamp, and that delight­ful minty green flows through the foy­er. But where the Roxy is unlike any­thing I’ve ever seen before is with the art. And it is art, and quite hon­estly I’m without words to describe it all. Look­ing up to the ceil­ing of the upstairs foy­er you’ll see a retro-sci­ence fic­tion mur­al, from Artist Greg Broad­more (the cre­at­or of all things Dr. Gror­d­bort) it feels a bit like you’ve entered a European castle crossed with Met­ro­pol­is. Upstairs you’ll also find loun­ging robots drink­ing cock­tails, busts from the best of films, Weta Work­shop cre­ations, bespoke door handles, sconces and oth­er wall dec­or­a­tions. I won’t say too much about the cock­tails, I think we’ll save that for The Fly next time it swings on by. But the cock­tails are very much Pro­hib­i­tion Era inspired, so expect loads of Cuban drinks and those Brit­ish gin-based clas­sics. But if like me you like your movies in the morn­ing, Jonny McK­en­zie mixes up a great mid­day Bloody Mary, or for the even­ing cinema goer, you can take your picks from the cham­pagne and liquor trol­leys. No more rush­ing to grab a drink before the film starts – the drinks come to you in the cinema. From today – Fri­day April 1st – you can start din­ing and drink­ing at Coco Res­taur­ant, which means some ser­i­ously great food. Then from Thursday April 7th the first film screens at 10.30am. No news yet on what that film will be, but like everything in Wel­ling­ton the rumour mill is run­ning hot and fast. You’ll be able to book your tick­ets online from Monday and to make life very simple you can book in for brunch, lunch or din­ner at Coco Res­taur­ant all at the same time. So does this Wel­ling­tonista have a big huge crush on the Roxy? I do and the thing that tipped me over the edge was the water­fall cur­tain in the cinema itself. For me there is always some­thing very spe­cial when i go to a cinema a the cur­tains open when the film starts, but to have a water­fall cur­tain slowly rising up. Well I almost thought for a moment I was trans­por­ted back in time and needed to stand up and sing god save the queen. The Cur­tain itself, well for a fab­ric nut like me it looks like everything you want a good cur­tain to do, it sparkles and shines as it floats up to reveal the screen. It’s in all these touches, big and small that makes the Roxy a stand out exper­i­ence for me. From the moment you step foot in the Roxy it’s like being whisked away into anoth­er era, full of the romance, glam­our, com­fort and anti­cip­a­tion that used to come with going to the cinema, but with all the best of tech­no­logy added and hid­den into the mix.