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.