
© Max Farago Many words have been spilled about Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights. A good many of them by me. But regardless of whether you sit in the camp of travesty or triumph, Fennell’s film has achieved something almost unimaginable – she’s sent us to the cinema in droves. “Wuthering Heights” recouped its entire production budget by making $83mn at the global box office in its opening weekend. Seventy-six per cent of ticket buyers were women. The chick flick flies again. 
© Netflix Many of the people who participated in the Academy Awards voting this month will have judged this year’s films via a laptop or smartphone, not on the big screen. Cinema audiences have plummeted. A quote by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is being much thrown around: “The average person in the US goes to the cinema twice a year,” said Sarandos while promoting the Netflix/Warner Brothers deal that ultimately collapsed. “People are very romantically attached to the idea of… sharing a movie with 2,000 people. But that’s not exactly how people are experiencing it.” 
© Victor Guthmann Fennell has made bold the “romance” that a trip to the cinema can still be a happening. As someone who is never happier than in a dark room full of strangers amid the smell of stale popcorn, I hope this year is one in which the big screen might be saved. Christopher Nolan is launching his Odyssey unto the masses, the Michael Jackson biopic is coming and we await Miranda Priestly and her entourage in The Devil Wears Prada 2. And so, to persuade you to venture a little further for your screen time, we’ve rounded up the greatest cinemas in the world. These range from art deco wonders in Paris to high-kitsch venues such as The Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles and the old-school movie palace, the Raj Mandir, in Jaipur. I personally can’t wait for an opportunity to check out the dizzyingly fabulous Koninklijk Theater Tuschinski by Pathé in Amsterdam. Worth the trip for the name alone. Give your walls a cocoa pop | | | | 
© Farrow & Ball In keeping with crepuscular interiors, we’re also looking at chocolate, the chicest shade in wall paints and furnishings right now. Inès Cross has spoken to designers about how to get the deep shade just right; Clara Baldock has also performed an extremely useful service in rounding up the latest drop of rechargeable, portable lights. Le Sirenuse Mare: the hottest address on the Amalfi | | | | 
© Tinko Czetwertynski If all this indoor talk is too much, I direct you to the unveiling of this summer’s hottest beach club: Le Sirenuse Mare. You’ll find it in Nerano, a tiny, off-beat fishing village in an unspoilt bay on the Amalfi Coast. The Sersale family, which owns Le Sirenuse, the legendary 1950s hotel in Positano, had been toying with the idea for many years. When it opens this spring, the beach club will plant guests right on the beachfront and within shuffling distance of Nerano’s three fabled restaurants, the most famous being Lo Scoglio. Maria Shollenbarger got to visit Le Sirenuse Mare just before the big reveal. It’s going to be the destination of the season. I urge you to book now. |