Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 10 theaters doing it right

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Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 08-18-2006, 12:40 PM:

I just love how this article completely ignores any aspect of actual quality in anything of importance.

I mean, seriously, the Chinese made the list because it's "instantly recognizable"? I saw a movie there and the experience was *yawn* other than the pretty decor. And the much-worshipped Arclight is nothing without the snooty PR.

From Entertainment Weekly:

quote:
10 theaters doing it right

We tell you about the movie houses that make watching films a dream
by Gilbert Cruz and Gregory Kirschling

1 ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE (Austin) One of America's most fanatically unique moviegoing experiences. Specializes in oddball repertory programming events like the Lord of the Rings trilogy with Hobbit Feast (you eat whenever they eat!) and a traveling road show that, among other things, is unspooling Close Encounters of the Third Kind at the film's climactic backdrop, Devil's Tower. Movie-geek heaven.

2 KENNEDY SCHOOL (Portland, Ore.) Remember when it would rain during recess and your teacher would wrangle all the students inside for a crappy movie? Well, watching a flick in the auditorium of this converted elementary school is sorta like that, only with second-run movies, comfy sofas, and beer from the McMenamins chain, which owns several awesome Portland microbreweries/movie houses.

3 THE CASTRO (San Francisco) With a massive single screen, balcony, and sonorous Wurlitzer organ, this is the very definition of a ''movie palace.'' Its rep programming is excellent (70mm and silent-film festivals, a series of double features pitting Bette Davis movies against Joan Crawford films), though last year's firing of a popular programmer lit up message boards with disapproval.

4 THE SENATOR (Baltimore) A glitzy marqueed movie hall, the Senator fought for its survival before being showcased by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. That's all well and fine. The real reason we love it: no children under 5 allowed. Ever. No joke. Call us miserable child haters, but admit it, you like this idea and wish more places did the same.

5 FILM FORUM (New York City) Revival houses are flying the way of the laserdisc, and yet this invaluable three-screen treasure trove is still flourishing 35 years after its start. It's a throwback: The lines to get in feel like the one Woody Allen was stuck in at the beginning of Annie Hall, and the screens shimmer with themed classics (coming up: a four-week samuraifest) and impossible-to-find-elsewhere indies. NYC's finest cinema.

6 CABLE CAR CINEMA (Providence) Though not as old or cushy as other theaters on this list, the railcar garage-turned-indie/foreign-film house has a fiercely loyal and diverse clientele drawn from local universities. With lived-in sofas and local musicians performing before showings, it exemplifies the college-town movie experience.

7 THE ARCLIGHT (Hollywood) It costs $14 to get into what locals consider movie nirvana. But at least you'll notice the difference. The Cinerama Dome theater is sweet. So are the 14 other giant screens, reserved seating, gourmet munchies, ushers who shush talkers, AFI-supported retrospective series, and over-21 boozefests (perfect for a movie like Wedding Crashers). Even the stubs look like golden tickets.

8 GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATRE (Hollywood) L.A. deserves two theaters on this list because, in terms of exhibition at least, it's the best city in the U.S. for filmgoing. Famous for its grand, flaring entryway studded with cemented movie-star hand- and footprints, the luxurious and recently refurbished Chinese is the only instantly recognizable cinema in the country.

9 THE ORIENTAL (Milwaukee) Three cheers for Landmark Theatres, the country's best art-house chain. They do boutique movies like Murderball right. Especially at this three-screen Midwest movie palace, open since 1927 and complete with still-working pipe organ. It holds the record for longest continuous engagement, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show has played nonstop since 1978. The staff will even feed your parking meter!

10 MUVICO PARADISE 24 (Davie, Fla.) When you combine old-movie grandeur with new-movie technology, you get the theaters in the Florida-based Muvico chain. The Paradise is its grandest, a faux-Egyptian megaplex with hieroglyphics and stadium seats. As far as we know, ancient Egypt never offered on-site child care at any of its entertainments, so you decide which is the golden age.

Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 08-18-2006, 12:46 PM:

How many of those are chain owned, VS independently owned?

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 08-18-2006, 12:52 PM:

The Alamo Drafthouse is nothing but a scum sucking email spam outfit. Somehow I was put on their email list, like I give a shit living 2000 miles away, and have been unsucessfull getting off it. I wish whoever runs this outfit was dead, and their bleached bones were sitting out in the Texas sun. May all spammers rot in hell. I know, I shouldn't hold back and say what I really think, but I'm trying to be nice.

The Film Forum in NYC does some nice programming, but the theatre has all the ambience and charm of a concrete bunker. The screens are far too small and the film presentation varies from ok to poor.

No comments on the others.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-18-2006, 02:20 PM:

The Cable Car has a funky atmosphere, but their film presentation is lacking. We had a filmmaker last year at the RI Film Fest who refused to allow his print to be screened there after he saw the big bottle of shoe polish on the makeup table.

We put on a much better show up the hill at the Avon or across town at the Columbus.

As for the others, the Chinese was attractive but had the worst-sounding THX system that I had ever heard when I visited in 2000. The Senator is genuinely great. The Arclight used to be the Cinerama Dome and it had the best sound system I have ever heard in any theatre, anywhere as of 2000. I hope that they didn't ruin it.

I have not been to any others on on the list, but I am told that the Film Forum is a real dump. The Castro is on my "must see" list.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-18-2006, 02:47 PM:

NYC's Film Forum may show interesting indie fare, but I agree with others on the judgment it is a dump. The idea of calling it the best movie theater in New York is pretty ridiculous. The Ziegfeld isn't perfect, but it is a damned sight better. I don't even think the Film Forum could even be ranked near the best in terms of art house theaters in New York.

The Senator in Baltimore has a great reputation. Did that article wrongly snub The Uptown in D.C. for not including it in the list?

If Northpark 1-2 in Dallas was still around it would be worthy of a top 10 mention -at the very least from the meat and potatoes standpoint of actual film presentation.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-18-2006, 03:06 PM:

Isn't that article over a year old? It was from issue #833 and they are on issue #893 now.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-18-2006, 03:16 PM:

quote: Scott Norwood
The Arclight used to be the Cinerama Dome

Small clarification: The name "Arclight" refers not only to what was the Cinerama Dome, but also the new theaters that were built adjacent to the Dome around 2001 or early 2002.

The sound system in the Dome for "Lord of the Rings" was effing amazing, possibly the best I've ever heard for a movie. I think that was May 2002. Image quality from a Super 35 print like that is another matter. The best I can say is "The screen is really really BIG!"

I saw "The Rookie" in one of the new Arclight auditoriums. It had a serious reverb problem with the sound. The walls were covered with some kind of very thin material, almost like just a layer of fabric. It was like seeing a movie in a racquetball court. I hope they fixed that.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 08-18-2006, 03:49 PM:

quote: Allison Parsons
How many of those are chain owned, VS independently owned?

Theatres 1 through 6 are indies. 7 to 10 are, in order, Pacific, Mann, Landmark, Muvico. Number 3, the Castro, at one time was part of the old Blumenfeld chain, but I believe it is now independently owned. Check me on it, tho. It's a beautiful theatre, I love going there, you would too, Scott. The chief projectionist there is Hal Rowland, a great guy seriously into his craft.

quote: Scott Norwood
The Arclight used to be the Cinerama Dome

The Dome is still there, still with a great sound system. The Arclight Theatres are attached to the Dome going east down Sunset.

The Film Forum: Let's be fair. Somebody over at Cinema Treasures (or maybe it was a Usenet group) with a hard-on for the place started in on the Forum years ago with the "dump" thing, and now people take it as gospel. The old place on Watts St. was a mess, granted, but that was 20 years ago. The Houston St. location is much nicer. The three auditoriums are smallish and oddly laid out, I agree, but "dump" is waaaaay too strong a word. I get there at least one or two times a month, the place is always immaculately clean, and I still have yet, in 20 years of steady film-going, to see a show that was anything less than brightly and cleanly projected with clear sound. The #2 screen is still the only calendar/rep house still going in the city, and, yes, it's true, they get films in that no one else will take a chance on. I don't know why this place gets the bad cess that it does, it really dosn't deserve it, and props to Karen Cooper for all she's done to keep it rolling. To those who love movies (as opposed to just movie theatres), the Forum is a treasure.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 08-18-2006, 06:07 PM:

quote: Bill Gabel
Isn't that article over a year old?

I guess it is. Odd that it was posted on Cinema Treasures today. Oh, well, my criticism of their criteria stands.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-18-2006, 09:34 PM:

Well, I worked at the Muvico Paradise 24. It was nicely designed. Other than that - I hated it there. What a great big waste of money that place was/is. I would recommend 100 other theatres before that one. [Razz]

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 08-19-2006, 03:58 AM:

What?!?! We didn't make the list? I want a recount! I demand that the hanging chads be counted in! And if they don't want to be counted, we'll hang some more.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-19-2006, 08:57 AM:

You also missed the America Theater in Casper Wyoming.... It is the best equipped theater outside of The Academy Theater and the Directors Guild Screening room.... in fact it has for the most part exactly the same equipment and screen size and even more surrounds. Very Good presentations done there with occasional 70mm showings and it is kept spotlessly clean.

Mark

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-19-2006, 06:59 PM:

If the NY Film Forum made the list, then The Rose Theatres at The Brooklyn Academy of Music should have made it many times over, and in my opinion, should have knocked FF right off the page. The Rose at BAM are housed in a what was a larger, older playhouse which they took great pains in preserving the original ornate wall coverings and fixtures. Their mix of small independent, foreign and unnoticed gems is every bit as good and eclectic as the titles Ms. Cooper programs. And I'll agree, no, the FF may not be a dump in the sense of falling down and dirty, but it sure is the epitome of a soul-less, characterless storefront-type operation. The rooms themselves have all the charm of a toilet seat. The staff, all the way up to and including its leading lady have what can only be described as anti-charm; I have experienced first hand a subtle but palpable disdain for the common patrons. Seems their main interest is in courting The Patrons (sponsors and corporate donors), which is not at all uncommon with similar not-for-profits.

The New York Anthology Film Archives is another art house in NYC which has been working that PR reputation for years. The film aficionados say the name in hushed, reverential tones, but it suffers a similar focus as the FF -- ravenously, aggressive when it comes to stalking sponsorship, but casual to the point of indifference when it comes to being demanding about presentation values and film care (which is astounding given that Anthology claims to be the nation's foremost film preservationists). I sure as hell wouldn't let them run one of my prints. They have a mile-long list of private and corporate donors and sponsors, yet their booths are a shambles -- dirty is too kind; filthy is more accurate. I was so appalled at the condition in their main booth when a projectionist friend of mine brought me up there, that I actually suggested he take pictures of the place so as to hold their nose to the fire to clean up their act lest their board members somehow get to see these conditions. It certainly made me wonder where all that donated money went because it sure didn't go into presentation or even a modicum of aesthetics in the rooms where one has to sit to watch one of their "eclectic" movies.

These places are what give DVD based home theatres a good name.

Oh, and PS -- Mitchell, I am with you on the Alamo -- I'll hold the fuel tanks while you fire the flame thrower. It's like a plague of roaches....the emails just keep coming. These people need serious head banging.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 08-19-2006, 08:30 PM:

Umm, dont you guys have spam blockers on your email? You should be able to filter out their emails.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 08-20-2006, 04:30 AM:

quote: Mark Ogden
the Castro, at one time was part of the old Blumenfeld chain, but I believe it is now independently owned. Check me on it, tho. It's a beautiful theatre, I love going there, you would too, Scott. The chief projectionist there is Hal Rowland, a great guy seriously into his craft.

yes, it's independently owned. they do go the extra mile for showmanship, with organist, curtains, spotlights, etc. presentation has its flaws sometimes, acoustics are not ideal. i believe the chief projectionist is jim marshall.