Valhalla Cinema, Melbourne

Valhalla Cinema
The Westgarth Cinema, former home of the Valhalla, as it was in 2004
General information
Town or city	Victoria Street, Richmond (Melbourne), Victoria (in 1976) High Street, Westgarth, Victoria (Relocated in 1987)
Country	Australia

The Valhalla Cinema was a repertory and arthouse movie theatre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Noted for audience participation films, it was named for Valhalla, the "Hall of the slain" in Norse mythology.

The cinema opened its doors on June 10, 1976 at a location on Victoria Street, Richmond. The first film to be screened there was Michael Ritchie's "Smile". The cinema was started by two friends from Sydney University - Barry Peak and Chris (Christopher) Kiely. They had been running short seasons of films by the likes of the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields & Mae West and Humphrey Bogart in Melbourne for some time. Realising that they needed a permanent home in Melbourne, rather than keep renting venues such as the Palais in St Kilda and the Horticultural Hall in Victoria Street, Melbourne, they leased the cinema at 216 Victoria Street, Richmond.

Although it initially had no seats, and patrons had to bring their own, it soon found a following. Among its more distinctive traits were its calendars, which contained up to six months' worth of upcoming attractions, and its request board, where anyone could add a request for any film with a reasonable expectation of its being screened.

Later, it became the home of two long-running audience participation films, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (from 1978) and "The Blues Brothers" (from 1980), as well as regular 24-hour film marathons. The marathons were often science fiction themed, showing anything from Hollywood blockbusters like "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", B-grade films such as "Them!" or the complete series of Star Trek motion pictures. Animation celebrations were a popular with audiences. The cinema also ran regular weekend, or week-long, festivals on a theme: Jacques Tati, New Russian Cinema, Fassbinder, Herzog, Pink Panther, Bond Films, Astaire/Rogers, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Kurosawa.