Contemporary Films was established in 1951 by Charles Cooper (1910-2001) in one small room on Frith Street, in London's Soho District. He was later joined by his wife Kitty, who played a major role in the development of the company.
Now having survived more than fifty years it remains one the oldest of the small independent distribution companies that flourished around this time. In creating Contemporary Films, its founder Charles Cooper conceived his company as the means by which progressive and socially enlightened feature films, shorts and documentaries from any part of the world would be given a window to audiences in the UK.
To this end, Contemporary Films introduced the latest films of what were at that time unknown directors including such renowned names as Andrzej Wajda, Milos Forman, Ingmar Bergman, Mike Leigh, Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovski, Werner Herzog, Satyajit Ray, Yasujiro Ozu, Nagisa Oshima, Bernardo Bertolucci, Luis Bunuel and countless others. Thus, during the years that followed, Contemporary Films built up a unique film catalogue comprising the finest films of world cinema.
Always politically and socially committed, Contemporary Films was in the forefront in the search for excellent documentaries which reflected current social trends and political events worldwide. Among the documentaries released to cinema audiences were Frederic Rossif's definitive film on the Spanish Civil War To Die in Madrid, March to Aldermaston edited by Lindsay Anderson, the documentary films of Felix Greene covering China and Vietnam, and Robert Epstein's Oscar winning film The Times of Harvey Milk.
The Paris
Pullman Cinema in Drayton Gardens,
one of the company's cinemas in the 70s and 80s
In 1967 Charles and Kitty Cooper decided to branch out into exhibition. They acquired their first cinema, the Paris Pullman in South Kensington soon to be followed by the Phoenix cinemas in north London and Oxford.
How do we see the future? We hope to continue, bringing to audiences the very best of world cinema, searching for and creating a public for new, unknown and talented directors. Although currently Contemporary Films is concentrating on providing archival material for programme makers, we continue to have an interest in releasing classic titles such as Battleship Potemkin, La Regle du Jeu and Strangers on a Train to new, young audiences. With the proliferation of new technology, Contemporary Films has also released many of its classic films on video and DVD.
The famous frontage at
55 Greek Street. The company moved on in 1989.
