Becky Hallsmith on the health of the city cinema scene We live in a city that provides us all with a rich cultural life: museums, galleries, several theatres and music venues and, for film lovers, four cinemas.

Two of the three major multiplex exhibitors have cinemas here, with the Vue out at Kassam and the Odeon operating in the city centre.

The small Picturehouse art-house chain has a two-screen cinema in Jericho, and here in East Oxford we have our very own independent repertory cinema just off the Cowley Road.

So within the city limits we can find the full range of cinematic output: from the latest big studio blockbuster watched in 3D on a giant screen, to discovering a small film from Eastern Europe that’s deservedly won a load of prizes we’ve never heard of.

Local cinemas are known to be good for the local economy — a night out at the movies often involves a visit to a local restaurant, bar or cafe.

Local cinemas also foster a sense of place — can you imagine Jericho without the Phoenix at its heart, or the Cowley Road without the UPP?

Between them our four cinemas have 20 screens, way above the national average for screens per capita. Do we need any more?

Proposals for Botley and Westgate will see the third big multiplex chain, Cineworld, and a second art-house chain add another 10 screens or so to the city.

Will that really help the local economy, or bring too much competition?

I think the overall effect will be to fragment the audience and to weaken the experience of going to the cinema.

For the real value of cinema lies in the very essence of film-going as a shared experience.

Films, like books, are about different things to different people, that’s one of the things that makes them so special.

Reading a book is a solitary activity, and while it is increasingly easy to watch a film that way too — on your smartphone or your laptop — that’s not the best way to do so, and not what the film-makers intended.

I’m not saying that you have to necessarily respect the intent of the auteur, it’s simply that seen in the environment it was made for, you will get the most you can out of the film.

Sitting in the dark, immersed in the action on the screen, along with you are your unseen (and, hopefully, unheard) fellow passengers. Together you ride the narrative, experiencing the highs and lows of the characters at the same time which seems to amplify the whole experience.

We find that our audiences, who have cried together and laughed together for 90 minutes, often spontaneously applaud at the end of a screening (particularly if it’s been of a classic film).

And all of this is actually good for your health Yes really! A study conducted in Sweden and published in 2000 found that those who never attended the cinema had mortality rates nearly four times higher than those who did.

Going to the cinema can actually prolong your life . . . so ditch the trainers, just stroll round to your local cinema and watch a film.