Few areas of London are quite as charmless as Leicester Square, a once glamorous West End location now best known for having a big M&M’s shop in it. Indeed, last year, when Londoners attempted to keep tourists away from all the nice restaurants by leaving fake glowing reviews for bad ones, the only logical lure was the square’s notoriously disappointing Angus Steakhouse.
However, there has always been one holdout, one scrap of Leicester Square that, despite it all, has managed to single-handedly uphold the spirit of the place. The Prince Charles Cinema, open since 1962, may very well qualify as the greatest cinema in the world. A repertory theater beloved by the likes of Quentin Tarantino (who called it “everything an independent movie theater should be”) and Paul Thomas Anderson (who would pop in to check out dailies while shooting Phantom Thread), the P.C.C. prides itself on its bracingly diverse presentation slate.
