The world’s oldest cinema is in France, but more surprisingly Australia lays claim to its oldest outdoor screen. Broome, on the coast of Western Australia, is home to this deeply mellow picture garden. It was originally set up by a local pearler and screened its first movie in 1916 (a British silent called Kissing Cup). Since then, it’s survived wartime bombing, some big weather events, and is currently busy surviving the advent of Netflix. There’s old projectors on display, alongside portraits of matinée stars like Lon Chaney and Thomas Gomez. Outside, the deckchairs, tin roof, century-old floorboards and Hollywood sign lend an intoxicating sense of cinema’s golden age given an Aussie twist. Phil de Semlyen
There’s few more glorious summer activities than lying back in the great outdoors and soaking up a movie. The sun dropping beneath the horizon, the prosecco flowing, Hugh Jackman about to start singing in a top hat – let’s face it, you’re statistically likely to be watching The Greatest Showman – and a deckchair to sink into. What could be more perfect? You even get to use that comfy blanket your nan gave you.
But if there’s one thing that ups the ante on the experience, it’s doing it in an eye-poppingly beautiful location – like one of the 30 starlit screens on this list. From a screen that emerges from Sydney harbour like a kind of cinematic Botticelli, to a vertiginous Colorado amphitheatre, to Cannes’s iconic Cinéma de la Plage, they cover all bases and the entire globe. Take a tour of the most spectacular screens on the planet.
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