Editor

I am prompted to write following the recent demise of the great Maldwyn Mills (1926-2019), formerly Professor in the English department at Aberystwyth University, but also - which is of great interest to film buffs - the founder and president of the film society that was the predecessor to, as well as the inspiration for, the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Cinema Film Club.

There’s a short notice of his passing in the Cambrian News of 12 December. He it was who inspired my own lifelong love of true cinema, and indeed that of many others. His obituary is on the website of the university’s Development and Alumni Relations Department. Amid the panoply of Professor Mills’s academic achievements set forth in that place, the compiler thereof has only been able to mention in passing the man’s great and scholarly enthusiasm for cinema, which he brought to local audiences. Maldwyn is widely remembered as the brilliant conductor of the old Aberystwyth and District Film Society (on the committee of which I served as secretary). Alas, this much-loved institution was wound-up in the ’80s after many years of success.

But during the heyday of that Film Society, Maldwyn presided over our shows in the Moorish-themed chamber of the old magistrates’ court in Aber, a space exotically redolent of the Alhambra - the premises having originally been built as an hotel on the prom - that served as the rather grand surroundings of our then modest 16mm art cinema; finally, under his energetic leadership the society burst into 35mm widescreen and surround sound upon our remove to the spacious environs of the Great Hall. I believe the Arts Centre Cinema now hopes in some suitable manner to celebrate his lifelong love of film.

This now vanished era of film-going is fondly remembered, not least for Maldwyn’s brilliant introductory encapsulations of each evening’s film: His knowledge of cinema was both eclectic and profound, his company an education. He was held in the warmest regard by those who knew him, and will be remembered with great affection.

Philip Davies Pantydderwen Llandre Bow Street

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