Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Bristol’s 20th Century Flicks is now believed to be the longest-running video rental store in the world.
In fact, co-owner Dave Taylor thinks it’s one of only a handful left in the UK now that the big video rental chains like Blockbuster have gone. Former film student Dave has been working for 20th Century Flicks for 20 years and he now owns a majority share of the business alongside co-owners Paul Green, Tara Judah and Dave White.
What started off in 1982 as a tiny operation in Redland with a stock of just 100 VHS videos has grown into something quite different. Now based on Christmas Steps after several years in Clifton, 20th Century Flicks has two small cinema rooms as well as the DVD rentals side of the business.
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The shop is a cramped but orderly Aladdin’s Cave of movies spanning the generations and many different genres. Ask Dave how many films are available to rent and he knows the precise figure, as each new DVD follows the consecutive numbering system that started with the first film 40 years ago.
“We have 20,836 films here - the latest is the Princess Diana movie Spencer,” smiles Dave, before showing me the other new DVDs proving popular with customers. “One of our most popular rentals at the moment is Limbo, a film about Syrian refugees on a remote Scottish island, and also Pig starring Nicholas Cage is doing really well - it’s about a truffle hunter with a stolen pig.”
In these days of online streaming and Netflix, 20th Century Flicks may seem a slightly antiquated operation. But at just £3 to rent a DVD for the week, it’s still much cheaper than a trip to the cinema and the pandemic saw a spike in business.
Dave says: “We seem to attract a certain crowd and it’s often people who have missed things at the Watershed or other local cinemas. Sometimes we get films less than a month after they’ve been in the cinema but Covid also had an effect because people couldn’t go to the cinema at all.
“Also, a lot of people stopped going to the cinema despite restrictions being lifted and a lot of them still don’t feel safe enough to go so they rent them from here instead.” The shop stocks a wide range of films, from arthouse to classics, and the collection makes for a fascinating snapshot of what Bristol film fans have watched and enjoyed over the past 40 years.
“It’s a bit like cutting through sedimentary rock,” laughs Dave. “Because the films have been numbered consecutively over 40 years, people can trace their lives through the different sections - from the films they watched as kids or at university, through to now. It’s a real timeline.
“There’s an interesting anthropological element to it and a real Bristol flavour to the collection because it’s the staff and customers who have shaped the collection over the years.” The peak period for 20th Century Flicks was in the late 1990s and early Noughties when the shop was still near the Bristol University Students' Union in Clifton.
Dave says: “I joined in 2002 and it just got busier and busier - we were employing about 30 people at one point because customers would be literally queuing out of the shop and onto the pavement.
"At that time, DVDs had only been out for a couple of years and a lot of people were reluctant to switch from videos to DVDs so we partnered up with Richer Sounds on Whiteladies Road just to promote DVD players to people. When I started, the whole stock was VHS videos but in three years it flipped completely, which was brilliant for us because DVDs are a lot slimmer than videos so we could stock a lot more.”
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Back then, Clifton also had a slightly more Bohemian edge to it so the clientele was a lot more mixed. “When we were in Clifton it was quite interesting because it was still quite ‘squat Bohemia’ and punky back then.
“The staff and owners were old squat punks who were into European arthouse movies but then Clifton became the place to live if you had money. There was an interesting tension between us and the neighbours as we were quite counter-cultural and basically a load of Generation X slackers who were still smoking in the shop until the day they banned it.
“Suddenly, we had all these people from huge £1m houses coming in to rent the latest Richard Curtis film!” Interestingly, 20th Century Flicks launched the same year as the Watershed cinema and both have become Bristol institutions.
To mark its 40th anniversary, 20th Century Flicks is organising a short film festival of 1982 films and Dave and his team have found the perfect venue. The IMAX cinema on Anchor Road has been closed for 15 years but it will reopen for this special anniversary.
Return of 'mothballed' IMAX
Dave says: “We just thought it would be funny to ask Bristol Aquarium if the IMAX next door was still available. It has been mothballed since 2007 and just used for storage but, amazingly enough, they let us in to have a look.
“I then managed to track down the old technician who worked there and he found the old key to turn on the sound system. We couldn’t get the projector working - it’s actually the size of a car - so we got some people in to size it up and see what the biggest resolution film we could fill with high quality image so the films will be better quality than Blue-ray.
“We’re going to show films from 1982 which were video rental shop standards like Bladerunner, Poltergeist, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and some weird horror movies. If it goes well, I’d also love to do more at IMAX - perhaps turn it into a community cinema so local people can hire it out for events or curate their own film festivals.”
The 20th Century Flicks IMAX film festival is planned for May 13-15 and tickets will be on sale soon. In the meantime, 20th Century Flicks continues to rent out DVDs to regulars (as well as UK-wide through the post) but it’s the two cinemas that keeps it afloat financially.
Dave says: “We used to depend on students but they were very early adopters of streaming and sharing across digital platforms so they aren’t our core audience. To be honest, we wouldn’t be solvent without the two cinemas, which are booked most days for film clubs and parties.
“We have always been a bit of a social hub, too, as there are a lot of people living alone who want to chat to others about movies. We have longstanding customers who have become friends over the years - you can’t work here without dropping your guard so I’ve had some real heart-to-heart conversations with people, often ending with tears!”
And what about the future? In this increasingly digital world, is there still a place for 20th Century Flicks? Dave says: “As niche as it is, it has become a real part of Bristol and if it closed, it would be very sad. I also say to people that when the internet goes down, we are the ‘real world’ back-up for Bristol film fans.
“People thought digitising would save a lot of films but a lot of these great movies have disappeared because they haven’t ended up on streaming. A lot are out of print now so only on DVD or VHS.”
And after working there ‘temporarily’ after leaving university 20 years ago, Dave is as much a part of the furniture as the 20,000 DVDs. “I thought I was following the Tarantino route until I was 30 because I was a film student working in a video store - I thought I’d be making movies in the my 30s. I’m 42 now so maybe there’s still a chance!”
But who would take over the business if Dave decided to become the next Tarantino? “Well, it’s a bit like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory… I can’t leave until I find a Charlie to take over!
“But I have no plans to go yet - I’m genuinely grateful that I have a job that I still love doing.”
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