Viewers watching the first evening screening of Sir Sam Mendes' new blockbuster movie 1917 at the historic Electric Cinema on Station Street are going to be taken back in time before the movie even begins.
The film has already won the best director and best drama awards at the Golden Globes and been BAFTA nominated, too.
But no picture house in the UK can give 1917 the extra magic touch planned at the Electric - which opened long before the First World War had even started.
The Electric was founded on December 27, 1909 - and celebrated its 110th anniversary just two weeks ago
And so when the film 1917 opens on Friday, January 10, the Electric will feel like the only authentic place to be if cinemagoers really want to be taken back to the day.
Screenings will begin at 12.45pm, 3.15pm and 9pm, but the 6pm Gala Screening will feature the special introduction, too.
Place in history
The Electric is the only working cinema in the city that was open during the First World War.
To mark the release of the immersive film 1917, the cinema is hosting a special Gala Screening from 6pm on Friday, January 10, 2020.
Historian and author Andrew Thornton will talk about the people of Birmingham and how they lived during The Great War.
Thornton's talk will be followed by a poetry reading by Birmingham's former poet laureate Giovanni 'Spoz' Esposito before the film begins.
What is 1917?
The film is the latest from director Sir Sam Mendes whose previous films include American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go and James Bond thrillers Skyfall and Spectre.
Starring Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Daniel Mays, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, 1917 has been making headlines for having been shot as if it was all filmed in one take.
It was shot by Torquay-born legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, who finally won an Oscar in 2018 for Blade Runner 2049 having been nominated an astonishing 13 times previously without winning.
1917 tells the story of two young British soldiers tasked with trying to deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop 1,600 men, and one of the soldiers' brothers, from walking straight into a deadly trap.
Based on a story his grandfather told him, Sir Sam says: "You have a responsibility, it sounds corny, to the men who fell in the war and the generation that was lost.
“There aren’t many movies made on this scale that are not franchise movies these days and to be able to be allowed to make one about the First World War, you do feel there is a responsibility to try and get details right and to make something that feels not like a dry history lesson.
“You don’t want it to feel all distant and ‘good for you’ but something that is an experience and that is going to make the war feel vivid and like it happened yesterday.
“I felt it was all part of the same two hours of real time - one continuous shot.
"You can’t get out of it, you have to take every step with these men, whether you like it or not.
Super screens in Birmingham
“But I was also very conscious that it shouldn’t be repetitive or monotonous or just a headlong race.
“Because you’re in one shot, you also have to build into it moments of pause and quiet and reflection and lyricism and all these other things so it feels like it’s constantly shifting and moving rather than it just being this incessant headlong dash.
I think you have a responsibility if you’re a film-maker who is interested in scale, to make a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen."
1917 has been given a 15-certificate for 'strong injury detail' and it runs for 119 minutes and will go on general release on Friday, January 10, 2020.
