The Cinema REX in Bern, my favourite cinema, and indeed the best cinema in Bern/Switzerland/Europe/the world, shows new releases, mostly independent films or world cinema – but that’s not why they’re my favourite: it’s their curated programme. More or less every month, they’ve got a programme focusing on a theme, genre, country or filmmaker – in parallel to which they will also be running other, longer-term series, e.g. on film history or LGBTQI+ cinema or kids’ movies. Thanks to the REX I’ve seen classics on the big screen that otherwise I might not have had the chance to see at an actual cinema, from Apocalypse Now to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, from North by Northwest to Fanny and Alexander. The other movie theatres in the city that have survived the Great Cinema Purges of recent years also offer curated programmes, such as a series on Cult Movies and Worst Movies, but none are focused as much on providing a curated programme.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 