Rendezvous Cinema

Based in Portsmouth, the independent Rendezvous art-house cinema was opened in 1984 in a 90-seat auditorium in the Hornpipe Arts Centre, 143 Kingston Road (a former Oddfellows Hall), by the Portsmouth Film and Video Co-Operative. It was owned by Screenworks, a charity offshoot of the Co-Operative which also organised video workshops. Although mainstream films formed part of the programme, the pressure to show films for purely commercial reasons was eased by subsidies from county and city councils and Southern Arts.

Unfortunately, funding issues led to the closure of the Hornpipe, forcing the Rendezvous Cinema to move out. The final film presented by the Rendezvous Cinema at the Hornpipe was “Cyrano de Bergerac”, starring Gerard Depardieu, on Wednesday 29th July 1992. (The building was to become the Regal Palace night club, which didn’t want a cinema on the premises.)

Later that year, the Rendezvous Cinema, now managed and programmed by Portsmouth Media Trust, was able to set up in a lecture hall in the Lion Gate Building at the University of Portsmouth. Screenings here began on 6th October 1992; films were shown on Tuesday to Saturday.

However, the move proved unpopular with its patrons and audiences dwindled, cutting the box office takings by half.

This was not sustainable, and the Rendezvous Cinema closed for good on Saturday 12th November 1994 with Ken Loach’s “Ladybird, Ladybird”.

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