Sydney's suburbs are starved of culture. At least, that's what film buffs have been saying, pointing out that cinemas in the city's south, west and north west have been failing to show films such as The King's Speech.
''We've come into a run of really strong, intelligent films lately,'' Paul Brennan, the manager of boutique operations at Event Cinemas, says. ''We've had so many calls from customers in the suburbs asking, 'Why aren't these on our screens?'''
Mr Brennan's response has been to program arthouse and quality films at Parramatta, Castle Hill and Campbelltown, as well as regionally and interstate. The initiative starts on Wednesday with My Week with Marilyn.
Mr Brennan believes a large number of discerning filmgoers has been neglected for years. They are largely female, well educated and conservative.
He said Midnight in Paris, a Woody Allen film, had been No. 1 in Campbelltown for three weeks. ''What we found is that we had gorgeous cinemas and we were running ugly films, with murders and explosions. You don't want that. People can sit at home for that.''
Email a friend