Leila Garadaghi took almost a minimalism approach to her home cinema.
Leila Garadaghi took almost a minimalism approach to her home cinema.

Home screening rooms



Since the golden days of Hollywood, when a private screening room was a privilege reserved for only the most A of the A-list (Mary Pickford and Douglas Banks at Pickfair; Edie Goetz - the daughter of Louis B Mayer and the original Hollywood princess), to the late 1970s, when Robert Evans's screening room at Woodland in Coldwater Canyon was the scene of legendary parties, private cinemas have had a unique cachet.

Now, though, almost in spite of the plethora of all-purpose "home entertainment systems" that have hijacked the term "home cinema", the trend to create standalone screening rooms is growing - not least because advances in technology have prompted a drop in the price of equipment, making a proper home cinema more affordable. To convert a spare room in their Abu Dhabi villa into a screening room, Peter Scarlet, the executive director of Abu Dhabi Film Festival and his wife, Nazzy Beglari-Scarlet, a senior international correspondent for Voice of America television, have not spent a fortune. The simple room, its walls painted white, two of them entirely covered with heavy cream curtains to soften it, houses a state-of-the-art Panasonic projector, a wall of custom-built shelves holding more than 1,000 DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, a five-speaker system, a beautiful Persian carpet, possibly the world's most comfortable seats and, quite often, a cat.

"We call it Jamal Theatre," says Peter. "We named it after our cat, who also likes to come in here and watch films." Although every night has been movie night (as well as some days) recently, once the film festival is over the Scarlets will get back to using their cinema for its chief purpose - entertaining friends. "We usually have friends over every Friday for dinner," says Nazzy, stretching out on one of the oversized recliner chairs that they bought from Crate & Barrel in Dubai after weeks of searching. "Sometimes we show a short film before dinner and then a feature film afterwards."

It sounds like domestic bliss and is a far cry from Hollywood extravagance. These days you're nobody in Laurel Canyon if you haven't got a fancy home theatre. Forget the lap-pool, the den, the 12-metre walnut deck and the California rock garden - it's the in-house cinema that makes the res truly des. Some go all out and install red velvet curtains across the screen, chairs that massage, warm or cool the incumbent, a popcorn machine, Coke dispenser and maybe a "starlight" ceiling with twinkling optic fibres - not to mention a sound system of recording studio quality.

In Dubai, Marie-Inez Botha, an interior designer and partner in Etcetera Living, has more and more clients craving screening rooms. "We've seen a huge increase in the number of requests for home cinemas; they all still want to keep their family TV rooms but convert another room in the villa into a home theatre with the latest and greatest technology and design." In contrast to the simplicity of the Scarlets' screening room, importing a complete, top-of-the-range home cinema from the US - which includes cinema-style chairs, wall panelling, cabinetry for the sound system, all the technology (surround-sound, plasma screens, etc) and even a team who flies over to install it - can cost roughly Dh1 million. "Designing one here of the same quality but for less [money] is challenging but achievable," says Botha.

"The design process for any villa, from inception to installation, can take from six to 18 months and therefore I leave the technology, such as decisions on whether to favour a TV or projector, to the end. There are specific considerations, such as avoiding and covering marble floors, 'dressing' [or soundproofing] the walls to avoid echoes and installing effective blackouts if the rooms have windows."

The decorative brief for home cinemas is also changing, according to Botha. "We have moved away from the more traditional cinema decor of blacks and reds and substituted the colours with homely hues such as beiges, browns and greys - and we bring the cinema closer to home by adding bean bags, snuggly throws and soft scatter cushions." Botha has also introduced big sleeper sofas, which can comfortably seat at least four people, in the front row with cinema-style chairs behind to give people more seating choice.

Another who has recently designed some spectacular screening rooms is David Collins, whose eponymous London-based studio is probably best known for designing the interiors of several of the UK capital's most exclusive bars, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. In one recent screening room he lined the walls with pale-coloured silk panels and filled it with bespoke lighting and furniture, including a bar; in another he covered the walls with stretched burgundy leather.

"One particularly beautiful room we developed had rows of love-seats and bean bags upholstered in a beautiful sky-blue silk velvet, with cashmere throws and cushions and deep midnight-blue silk walls," he says. Collins recognises that this addition to a home is an indulgence and "similarly to any living or drawing room, it has to be fabulously appointed, practical and - most importantly - comfortable".

However, he adds, nowadays everyone can install new technology in their living room, study or even bedroom. "Fantastic products such as Apple TV allow you to watch film and TV on demand, and the quality of audio-visual equipment available is incredible." But here's an important distinction: there are two schools of thought when it comes to home cinema. A film-mad friend in England is immensely proud of what he calls his "private cinema", which consists of a gigantic surround-sound flat-screen TV in his living room through which he plays DVDs far too loudly while munching microwaved popcorn. But, as Peter Scarlet rightly queries, is that really a home cinema?

"The essence of cinema is that light passes through film and is projected onto a flat surface," he says. "I think it was the French film theorist Christian Metz who said that when you sit in a cinema the source of the image is located in a place from where we know all thought comes - the back of our heads," or at least somewhere above and behind our heads in the projectionist's booth. "With a modern home cinema using a projector, admittedly the light doesn't pass through film any more because we now all use DVDs, but the projector is there behind you and the image is there projecting on to a white wall in front of you; that's as close to cinema as we're likely to be able to get. Using a television will never be as convincing because the light is coming from behind the screen."

For someone with a job such as Scarlet's the ability to watch films and judge them in a way that's as close as possible to a cinema experience is very important, instead of watching them reduced and altered on a TV screen. "It seems to me that we owe it to the filmmakers who send us their films to watch them in a way that's as close as possible to what they intended." A home cinema may not be as high-tech as a 1,000-seat public cinema but it's a lot better in many ways.

As well as the fun of having a private screening room, there is also a worthwhile educational element. With the vast majority of films shown in the UAE's multiplexes being of the mass-crass Hollywood and Bollywood genres, choice is sadly limited. Once you have installed your own system at home, you become the programmer. "With a private screening room you can - with some assiduous effort - assemble a collection that's like your home museum of cinema, which gives you access to films that, certainly in this part of the world, you cannot ever see in a cinema," says Scarlet.

"I have met people in Dubai and Abu Dhabi who have built home screening rooms so they can see films that they cannot see elsewhere in the UAE and they can begin to teach themselves the history of cinema, which is something that hasn't been possible before." This has to be good for the UAE's burgeoning film industry and the rising tide of multi-genre film interest. But maybe the most rewarding advantage of a home screening room is being able to take control of your own enjoyment. Anyone who has visited the cinema lately and sat helpless and frustrated in the midst of a crowd of people yelling into their mobiles and chattering among themselves throughout the film will know what I mean.

With the home screening room, the only disturbance you'll experience is if the cat needs to be let out.

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Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tottenham's 10 biggest transfers (according to transfermarkt.com):

1). Moussa Sissokho - Newcastle United - £30 million (Dh143m): Flop

2). Roberto Soldado - Valencia -  £25m: Flop

3). Erik Lamela - Roma -  £25m: Jury still out

4). Son Heung-min - Bayer Leverkusen -  £25m: Success

5). Darren Bent - Charlton Athletic -  £21m: Flop

6). Vincent Janssen - AZ Alkmaar -  £18m: Flop

7). David Bentley - Blackburn Rovers -  £18m: Flop

8). Luka Modric - Dynamo Zagreb -  £17m: Success

9). Paulinho - Corinthians -  £16m: Flop

10). Mousa Dembele - Fulham -  £16m: Success

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Airev
Started: September 2023
Founder: Muhammad Khalid
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Generative AI
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
 
Friday's schedule at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

GP3 qualifying, 10:15am

Formula 2, practice 11:30am

Formula 1, first practice, 1pm

GP3 qualifying session, 3.10pm

Formula 1 second practice, 5pm

Formula 2 qualifying, 7pm

The biog

Favourite food: Fish and seafood

Favourite hobby: Socialising with friends

Favourite quote: You only get out what you put in!

Favourite country to visit: Italy

Favourite film: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Family: We all have one!

Du Football Champions

The fourth season of du Football Champions was launched at Gitex on Wednesday alongside the Middle East’s first sports-tech scouting platform.“du Talents”, which enables aspiring footballers to upload their profiles and highlights reels and communicate directly with coaches, is designed to extend the reach of the programme, which has already attracted more than 21,500 players in its first three years.

UAE and Russia in numbers

UAE-Russia ties stretch back 48 years

Trade between the UAE and Russia reached Dh12.5 bn in 2018

More than 3,000 Russian companies are registered in the UAE

Around 40,000 Russians live in the UAE

The number of Russian tourists travelling to the UAE will increase to 12 percent to reach 1.6 million in 2023

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Company%20profile
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The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

Race card

6.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (Dirt) 1.600m

7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 2,000m

7.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,600m

8.15pm: The Garhoud Sprint Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 1,200m

8.50pm: The Entisar Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 2,000m

9.25pm: Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,400m