Bay Harbour: May 01, 2019

PAGE 6 Wednesday May 1 2019
BAY HARBOUR
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
News
Hollywood to Redcliffs for cinema owner
• By Julia Evans
A FORMER writer for major
Hollywood film studios who left
the bright lights of Los Angeles
for love is getting ready to open
the new Arts Centre cinema.
Redcliffs resident Max
Hoffman co-owns the Lumiere
Cinemas with cinephile Nick
Paris. It is expected to show its
first film soon – although it was
planned to open by Easter.
“It will open
very soon, within
the next couple
of months, but
we really want to
get it right.”
The pair have
been hands-on
Max
Hoffman
throughout the
whole process,
travelling to
China to work
with the manufacturer on every
centimetre of the Lumiere’s fit
out.
“We went over and sat in
the chairs. You can try and
order things online, but we had
everything custom done.”
But before moving to
Christchurch after the
February 22, 2011, earthquake,
Mr Hoffman worked as a
screenwriter for 20th Century
Fox and Disney studios.
He was not credited for the
AT THE MOVIES: The new Lumiere Cinemas will open soon in the Arts Centre.
work, which included re-writing
scripts.
“I was an in-house writer with
the writers’ guild for 10 years . . .
it’s hard work and if I’m honest,
it was thankless,” Mr Hoffman
said.
He left the Hollywood industry
five years before moving to
Christchurch.
“I’d done it, it was a hard job,
and as a writer, I just didn’t
have anything else to say,” Mr
Hoffman said.
“Then I met my husband, he
was a Kiwi travelling in LA.”
Mr Hoffman left his
home in LA to live with his
husband Sebastian Stapleton
in Christchurch after the
earthquake.
“I said I’m going to move there
and help you. I’d never been here
before, I didn’t know where it
was, which is embarrassing to say
now.”
Mr Hoffman then fell in love
again.
“It truly is the best city in the
world. There’s no better city than
Christchurch.”
He met Mr Paris on a visit to
Christchurch’s iconic Alice in
Videoland, which is where the
idea for Lumiere Cinema was
hatched.
Mr Paris has worked in local
cinema for the last 40 years -
from being a cinema projectionist
to helping ensure the Isaac
Theatre Royal was equipped for
screen movies.
“I got to meet Nick, who has
this incredible passion for film
and my husband, and I knew we
had to get behind him,” he said.
“Christchurch is very fortunate
to have Nick running and
programming the Lumiere as
his depth of knowledge in film is
most impressive and people who
love movies will be able to benefit
from that when they talk with
him.”
When it opens, the cinema will
feature two theatres and a bar
overlooking the Botanic Gardens.
Mr Hoffman said it would also
host outreach programmes for
prospective film makers.
“They used to do that at the
Arts Centre, so we want to bring
it back,” he said.
‘Flying boats’ part of Lyttelton Harbour’s past
Bay Harbour News
reported last week on
a plan to bring
seaplanes to Lyttelton
Harbour – but it would
not be the first time
they have taken off
in the area. Louis Day
looks at previous visits
PENINSULA AIR Ltd is working
to bring seaplanes to the harbour.
If the Rangiora-based company
is successful, it would not be the
first time seaplanes have operated
in the area.
On January 3, 1938, a flying
boat from
Wellington
was welcomed
by thousands
of spectators
at Lyttelton
Harbour.
It took just over
Maryanne
Jackson
90min for the
plane to complete
its journey from
Wellington.
The Imperial Airways flyingboat
Centaurus was the largest
aeroplane to enter the South
Island at the time.
It came from the south-west,
flying swiftly over Gebbies Pass
and landing near Erskine Point
less than 2min after it was first
spotted by the crowd standing on
the port wharves.
The flying boat had successfully
completed what was the longest
flight in the history of British
commercial aviation three days
before arriving in Lyttelton,
making the journey from
England to Wellington.
Former Lyttelton resident
Maryanne Jackson remembers
several seaplanes coming into the
harbour during the 1950s.
“I would have been in primary
school at the time. I remember
them coming and landing, it
happened a few times.”
“It was quite exciting for us, we
were quite young and we had not
seen a plane land in the sea,” she
said.
•HAVE YOUR SAY: Do
you remember seaplanes
in Lyttelton Harbour? Email
your recollections to
louis.day@starmedia.kiwi
CRAFT: The flying
boat Centaurus
anchored at
Lyttelton Harbour
in 1939.
WONDER: Crowds
of spectators
gathered at
Lyttelton Wharf
to watch the
Centaurus land in
the South Island
for the first time.