Return from Vacation

I would like to apologize for another rather lengthy hiatus from my blogging duties here. The combination of a short vacation to Portland, Oregon, the sunny (but pleasantly not oppressively hot) Southern California weather, and being stuck in jury duty for 3 days before dismissal (being married to a Public Defender has its privileges) led me to take a lax attitude towards updating the site or even surfing the web in general.

This was my second trip to Portland in the last decade (third visit there in my life, counting when my family visited my aunt and uncle when I was five years old), and I have to say, it’s my kind of town. Granted, we were blessed with beautiful weather that fluxuated between the mid-70s and low-80s the entire time, which I realize is a stark contrast to the eight plus months of rainfall the Pacific Northwest city is known for (my last visit was during the month of December, so I definitely have experienced that), but I imagine the city’s walkability and reliable public transportation certainly would provide respite during more inclement days.

While some residents (especially those that write for the weeklys) have some of that “I live in a great city superiority complex” thing going on that drove me a bit batty when I lived in San Francisco, that’s forgivable for a place where record and book stores still thrive, good food and drink (especially DRINKS) are not only appreciated but affordable, a large contingencies of movie theatres serve beer and/or quality meals, and where despite being a bastion of left of Nader liberals (of which I tend to fall on the political spectrum) there’s no sales tax!

I thought I’d share some of the entertainment highlights and purchases of my trip with you.

Movies

My wife and I caught two films at two separate movie theatres while vacationing. The first was Werner Herzog’s captivating documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams, one of the only 3-D films of the modern era where the extra dimension was actually necessary, providing texture and scope, at the Living Room Theatres. The theatres seats are comprised solely of barcalounger/couch style material with a table between each seat. We had a later lunch that afternoon so we didn’t order a meal, however, spying on other attendees’ food showed a wide assortment of fine cuisine, in addition to a full bar drink menu and Espresso bar (I had an Americano). We did order some popcorn, which was brought to our seats in an actual ceramic bowl. Ooo la la, indeed. The price was $12 for each ticket, which is a little pricier than normal, but still cheaper than the Arclight on a weekend night.

The next movie we saw was at the Laurelhurst, a theatre I visited the last time I was in Portland. It’s a small, independently operated, neighborhood theatre that used to be one large theatre that was cut into about six screens decades ago. In addition to normal concession items, they also make fresh pizzas and have a tap with a selection of a half dozen beers. The programming is pretty much second run independent fare, and admission for a 4:00 screening was only three dollars! Two of the best films of the year so far were playing when we went (those would be Meek’s Cutoff and 13 Assassins), but my wife and I caught the one repertory screening they had of the Michael Cimino directed, Clint Eastwood/Jeff Bridges starring cult classic, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. The print was not in the best condition and the projector bulb was wearing out, making everything darker than it should be, but for the price of admission and the chance to consume a beer during a theatrical screening, I won’t complain too much.

Books

The world famous Powell’s Books takes over a block of space, and is a bibliophile’s paradise. In addition to the main store, there are several smaller stores throughout the City, and for those that want to give business to a smaller entity than Amazon, you can order stuff from their website and have it shipped to anywhere. During the two or three hours I shopped there I actually spent so much time in the Crime Fiction and Film related rooms that I barely scratched the surface of the actual Literature room. Oh well, next time.

Here’s my haul:

For those who cannot see all the titles too well, here’s the list of what I purchased:

Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami

The Score-Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)…which I already read in two days, finishing on the flight home

Fatale-Jean Patrick Manchette…which I finished yesterday during breaks at jury duty

Lady Killer-Ed McBain…the first McBain/Precinct 87 book I’ve ever purchased, anyone recommend a good starting point for this series?

The Deep Blue Good-By and the Dreadful Lemon Sky-John D. MacDonald…looking forward to entering the world of Travis McGee after hearing so much about the series

Shock Value-John Waters

Melville on Melville…one of those interview series with famous film directors, this one with Army of Shadows/Le Samoraui auteur Jean-Pierre Melville

The Locked Room-Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

A Swell Looking Babe-Jim Thompson

Child of God-Cormac McCarthy

Swag-Elmore Leonard…I read Stick earlier this year, and didn’t realize that there was another book chronicling the character Ernest Stickley until reading the back cover

Button, Button and Other Stories-Richard Matheson…now I can finally see if I was right in assuming that the recent Richard Kelly film adaption of the cover story (The Box) starting going off the rails once Matheson’s story concluded and new strains were added

I also picked up those two swanky t-shirts, and my wife found several books of interest for her that are not included in that photo.

Records

Risking the possibility that we would have to check luggage (which we actually did not…I packed lightly), my wife and I purchased the following LPs at Jackpot Records, a local independent record chain. We had our first and only celebrity sighting there, Carrie Brownstein of the band Sleater-Kinney and the Portland centric sketch comedy show Portlandia, was shooting something in front of the store, possibly a segment for a future Portlandia episode?

Here’s what we purchased:

Otis Redding-Tell the Truth

Alice Cooper-Welcome to my Nightmare…for $ 2

Donald Byrd-The Cat Walk

Soft Machine-4

Led Zepplin-II…fun fact: though I am a pretty large music fan, this is the first Led Zeppelin album I’ve owned in any format, and I only paid a buck for it!

The Fugs-It Crawled Into My Hands, Honestly

Miles Davis-Filles De Kilimanjaro

Food

Honestly, considering we ate out pretty much the entire trip (save for a picnic at the Rose Garden), there are too many fine establishments to mention them all in this post. But one I would really recommend to any Portland residents or visitors is a place called Evoe. It is connected to a small Italian grocery store, and there’s only two tables and counter space. The chef, Kevin Gibson, used to work at an upscale restaurant, but feeling disillusioned with the scene opened this smaller place of his own. Everything is made of fresh organic ingredients, and if you sit at the counter, right in front of your eyes. We had a small lunch comprised of a selection of pickled items as an appetizer, a salad with thinly cut slices of artichoke as the base, and a wonderful dish of fresh peas on top of toast with a béarnaise-esque sauce. And all for about twenty dollars!

So if you can’t afford a trip out of the country, but have the urge to take a small vacation this summer, I highly recommend making the journey to Portland. And hey, good news, they hate Californians slightly less than they used to!

Meanwhile in Blogs that Actually Post Content...

The June Gloom that has infested Los Angeles has bled into my posting frequency here on the blog, so I thought I'd point you good people who have been kind of enough to visit here to check some other worthy sites out.

Here are a few links to articles or feature that I've recently found to be of particular interest:

TMT: A Theatre....A Movie...and a Time at It Rains, You Get Wet


Inspired by little ol' me's rant about the potential future of the Chinese Theatre (quick note, things seem okay for now, they even opened X-Men: First Class last weekend), blogging pal Leopard13 has started a new series on his frequently updated, and always engaging, blog where he traipses down Memory Lane, recalling a vital film in his cinematic history, where he saw it and the circumstances at the time of his viewing.

My favorite so far is his very personal and touching (especially for anyone whose lost a parent) post concerning watching Superman at the Chinese Theatre.

Other entries include:

Alien at the Avco
Empire Strikes Back at the Egyptian (at 5:30 AM!)
The Godfather at the Rosencrans Drive-In

Summer of 2001: 10th Anniversary at The Life and Art of Vern


The still anonymous save for first name, Vern, is one of my favorite writers on cinema period, and I love when a project lights a fire under his ass and he goes at it full throttle. This sort of dedication to a singular cause has resulted in his wonderful tome Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking films of Steven Seagal.

This year, he's stepping in a time machine and looking at the summer blockbusters of ten years ago, 2001 (aka the summer before September 11th), thus far he's going out it with his usual witty and insightful aplomb, so far discussing Crocodile Dundee in LA, Driven, The Mummy Returns, and Pearl Harbor (egads, what a crappy summer so far!)

Soundtrack Jukebox vol 1 and 2 at Obscure One-Sheet


Ned Merrill took time out of his busy Lucinda River swimming and suburban ennui schedule to post two volumes (and 68 tracks) of some favorite, forgotten, and obscure tracks from films that call to mind past summers. I've downloaded both volumes, and have been listening to them randomly, fueling nostalgia and a desire to watch (or rewatch) all the films he's culled this tracks from ASAP!

Here's Volume 1 whose highlights include "Number One" by Chazz Jankel aka that song featured in the montage from Real Genius, "Goodbye Horses" by Q. Lazarus, the perfect dance song for one noted serial killer Buffalo Bill, and Talk Talk's "Why is it So Hard" from the personal favorite of mine at the time, but MIA on DVD teenage drama, First Born.

And here's Volume 2 featuring the Roxy Music song "Same Old Scene" that kicked off Times Square, The Crusader's "Street Life" from Sharky's Machine, and the Lindsay Buckingham song ("Holiday Road") that introduced us to the Griswald's.

Professor Ed Avery's Cortisone Fueled Bigger Than Life, Super-Gulp Sized Summer Movie Quiz at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule


Ain't no meme, like a Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule meme, cause a Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule meme don't stop.

Have some time to answer 38 cinema related questions? If so head here and answer such probing questions like Lars Von Trier: shithead or misunderstood comic savant? (A little from column A, a little from column B); Favorite Non Spartacus Kirk Douglas role? (Paths of Glory! Ace in the Hole! Lonely are the Brave! That's too hard); and What's the worst remake of the 21st Century? (only one!)

As for me, I would participate but I got some pills to pop.

Five Suggestions to Save Cinema Exhibition at Grauman's Chinese Theatre

This is the weekend that Don Kushner and Elie Samaha officially took the reins at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and they’ve managed to still maintain radio silence on any future plans with the registered historical landmark. As the saying goes, the silence has been deafening. But to which end? No news is good news? Or are they’re hoping to quietly destroy the theatre’s legacy (to the extent possible after Mann’s bungled operation the last few years)? Perhaps it’s likely that they still haven’t decided what the hell they are going to do, though you’d kind of hope that if they were going to purchase the theatre they had an inkling of what they planned to do with it.

Shortly we will know if the Chinese will just be a tourist façade, an actual operating theatre or Studio 54 for the new millennium (I vomited a little in my mouth upon typing that.) Call me an idealist, but I don’t think normal exhibition is doomed to fail at the Chinese, it’s just been so mangled by Mann’s unwillingness to change, financial inability and woeful mismanagement when the Arclight became the standard by which Los Angeles locales judge their cinema going experience.

So as a public service act to those that will be operating the (I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating) historical landmark and most famous theatre in the world, let me offer five suggestions/ways to reinvigorate exhibition at the theatre. Some of these may come across as pie-in-the-sky dreams of a cinephile, but fuck it; these are pie-in-the-sky dreams of a cinephile.

1.) Focus on Exclusive Premiere Engagements

Did you know before those mall and shopping center based theatres proliferated, you know the theatres that we started going to instead of prestigious one screen theatres that required a bit more of an effort to make it to and now complain ruined the movie going experience with all the commercials and people talking and texting throughout the feature but fail to see the irony of our culpability in (whoa, sorry that went somewhere unexpected…no offense, well at least not too much offense I hope), anyway before those aforementioned multiplexes became the norm, a film would generally open in only one or two theatres in a town. In Los Angeles that meant that say, Star Wars, would open on one screen in Westwood (the AVCO) and one screen in Los Angeles proper (the Chinese). And if you wanted to see Star Wars, well you had to drive or take the bus and wait in line. I remember when I was six years old and E.T. was only playing at the Century 22 in San Jose (it may have been on two screens there) and my parents took me, and all the way in the car I was like “la la la I am going to see E.T. in your face!” only to get to the theatre to discover, gasp, the film was completely sold out for the entire day and I would not be seeing E.T. la la la. Obviously it was crushing, and while I am not a parent yet, I imagine that’s a pretty hard situation to deal with. But when I finally did see E.T., guess what, it was even more special and magical. Nowadays E.T. would open on 4,000 screens and be playing every hour on the hour so you could catch a show between getting your car’s oil changed and enjoying a mocha latte Frappuccino. Also thanks to the internet we’d know what E.T. looked like, have the whole fucking film spoiled a week before it opens by Jeffrey Wells and already form our opinion based on the trailer we watched repeatedly on iTunes, but that’s beside the point. You could pretty much draw a straight line that depicts the dip in quality of mainstream blockbuster film to the expansive openings of said film. Why would there be any interest in making say Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (to cite a recent example I have not seen nor desire to see but judging from reliable sources is a piece of shit) be any good when it makes seventy percent of its gross opening weekend before word of mouth spreads.

Anyway, I am going to be a realist and say that we will never see mainstream blockbuster films open at only one theatre in a given city at a given time ever again. However, stuff like Terrence Malick’s Palm D’or winning Tree of Life which opens exclusively at (well, I’ll be) the Arclight this weekend, and other arthouse, Academy Award hopefuls, independent buzz films and auteur driven curios open to exclusive engagements in Los Angeles and New York all the time. Tree of Life this week and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris last week being two prime recent examples. And, hell there’s nothing an Angeleno likes better than bragging about seeing a film before anyone else. After I saw an exclusive preview of There Will Be Blood, I would pick up random telephone books for Midwest cities and call strangers and say “hey man, I don’t know you but have you seen the new PT Anderson film, its freaking amazing! What? It’s not opening till the end of January and you’re completely snowed inside anyhow. Sucker!” Hell, I even do it for films I don’t catch until later in their runs, like when I was up for Christmas and my wife’s aunt said they just saw The Fighter which had opened there that weekend, and I replied “oh that’s been playing in LA for weeks now”, in fairness though people in the Bay Area like to brag about how superior they are to Los Angeles (and in further fairness, I lived in the bay area for 26 years). But back to my point, Midnight in Paris had a huge opening weekend per screen average, and I am guessing Tree of Life will probably have the same. I would imagine the same people who like to be the first to see these types of films will be just as open to going to see them at the Chinese as they are at the Arclight. It would give the theatre a bit of an identity and I am sure be more fortuitous than the feature currently playing there, Jumping the Broom…now in its fourth fucking week!

2.) Fuck Competition, Wave Territorial Rights

In all likelihood, this would probably be the most likely option. It’s also the one I am least in favor of, but if it will save the Chinese, I’ll deal. First though, if you will pardon, let me start this with another personal history lesson. In 1994, when I was a freshman in college, I began working for a movie theatre, the United Artist Metro Center 6 (Colma represent!). Because of territorial rights we could only play films there were not playing at any other theatre in a certain mile radius to our theatre. That meant the other three theatres in this radius: the Century Plaza 8, a two plex General Cinemas theatre and another six plex, the Serramonte 6, could not have the same film playing at the other’s theatre. So basically in this area you would have 22 screens and with the exception of big releases that opened on multiple screens each theatre had to program different films for each screen. The Serramonte theatre showed second run fare, and the General Cinemas seem to exclusively play films from either Paramount or Columbia studios, while the UA and the Century divided the rest of the films. This resulted in, primarily during the spring and fall when there wasn’t a new Batman or Die Hard film opening, theatres taking fliers on more interesting programming. In the span of my working there, either the Century 8 or Metro 6 would play such usually arthouse/independent theatre regulated fare as Before Sunrise, Shallow Grave, Death and the Maiden and Trainspotting. Today all four of those theatres are closed, demolished or refurbished into other business. In their stead is one newer Century theatre with twenty screens. That’s two less screens than fifteen years ago. Interested in what’s playing on those twenty screens today? The Hangover 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Pirates 4, Bridesmaids, Thor, Fast Five, Rio and with one or two showings each: Priest and Something Borrowed. That’s a total of nine films, all of which are wide releases produced by major conglomerates.

A few years ago Warner Brothers actually experimented with opening Terminator: Salvation both at the Chinese and the Arclight (maybe even the Cinerama Dome too). The main issue is that while there is a six screen multiplex attached with the Chinese, it does a fraction of the business that the Arclight with its reserved seating, ample parking and no talking rule enforcement. And since Joe Blow Big Studio wants to maximize profits, it’s more financially rewarding to open a film on three screens at the Arclight, then at the Chinese and two of their multiplex screens (full disclosure: I have never been to the current incarnation of the multiplex associated with the Chinese). But if say Warner allowed The Hangover part II to open at both the Chinese and the Arclight, it will be further on the way to global domination than they already are. Now obviously less choice is bad for the consumer (or at least this consumer), and I would hope that since they are one of only three (the other being the Disney film exclusively running El Capitan) single screens remaining in the area that the Cinerama Dome and Chinese would not be showing the same film at the same time, because that would blow. But perhaps using this weekend’s two big releases: The Hangover II could open at the Chinese and three screens at the Arclight while Kung Fu Panda 2 could play at the Cinerama Dome.

3.) Turner Classic Movies Cinemas

Okay, I am about to propose that the Chinese becomes a repertory theatre, before you scoff too much big business executives, please hear me out (I do realize they’re not reading this, but hey…) In April and May of the last two years Turner Classic Movies has operated a film festival of classic cinema with the Chinese being home base for some prestigious event screenings such as The Good, The Bad and the Ugly with a Q and A with Tucco himself, Eli Wallach, and Reds with Alec Baldwin moderating a discussion with Warren Beatty. Obviously the logistics of programming a festival like atmosphere for a theatre year round would be damn near impossible. However, what if, like the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, they show one classic film a week. This would be a great way to garner interest in film preservation, good synergy for Turner Classics and would restore some of the classic luster of the Chinese’s heyday. But wait, there’s more! My proposal to actually make this thing financially lucrative is to have a Friday or Saturday night premiere gala (where I guess conceivably you could charge higher admission) with a director, star or someone associated with the film in attendance for a pre or post-show discussion. And since the print's there, just show it for the rest of the week at a lower pricing rate for those who just want to watch the film. For example, if they showed The Godfather, perhaps Friday and Saturday night they could have Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino or James Caan doing an intro and discussion for an hour or so, with special premium pricing for $25 or something and then just show the Godfather for the rest of the week without the hullabaloo for like $10 Sunday through Thursday.

4.) Let the American Cinematheque Program the Theatre

The non-profit American Cinematheque has formed a strong niche with a focus on star and director driven special programming and annual events like their several weeks long Film Noir fest in April (I only attended once this year, for the Max Ophuls directed Caught, but the number of attendees for a special guestless performance on a Wednesday night was endearing) while saving two gems of theatres in the process: The Egyptian in Hollywood which had been twinned and abandoned, and the Aero in Santa Monica which was floundering. Since the Egyptian and the Chinese are in such proximity to one another, it’s very likely a difficult task to keep both theatres flourishing, but if anyone can do it, I am sure the American Cinematheque can.

5.) Alamo Drafthouse: Los Angeles

While I’ve never been to Austin, or Texas for that matter, when I finally do venture into the Lone Star state the first landmark that I hope to visit is not the actual Alamo (though I hear they have a lovely basement), Cowboy Stadium or the Houston Space Center, but the famous Alamo Drafthouse, brainchild of one Tim League. A theatre/restaurant created by and employed by movie lovers with a fiercely independent and unique sensibility which includes screenings of modern films of all stripes, specialty screenings with directors/actors in attendance (and a summer series off-shoot screening films in the locations they were shot, for example Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Devil’s Tower), weekly repertory screenings (Terror Tuesdays and Weird Wednesdays) and the annual Fantastic Fest: a film festival dedicated to genre and cult cinema, League has, with an eye towards community, successfully created a brand with loyalty and worldwide recognition (for naught was League given a special Thank You at the end of Grindhouse), and proved that with some fresh ideas and attention to quality, movie exhibition can still be a successful and rewarding experience for theatre operators and cinema goers in our modern online streaming era. And what’s more, word is out that he’s interested in bringing the Alamo to Southern California. Is there a location more appropriate and in need of him than the Chinese?

Further Lamentings for the Changing Ways We Watch Film

Having neglected this blog for a while I thought I would return and discuss two film related topics, one having to do with the possible fate of the world's most famous movie theatre, and the other, a recent discovery that returned me to a former favorite haunting ground, the video store.

To give some personal history, shortly after enrolling in college I worked at a movie theatre (the now demolished UA Metro Center in Colma, CA), and would work at three more before retiring from popcorn slinging. At some point, much like the trajectory of the films themselves, I inevitably ended up working at a video store. So, obviously I have a highly subjective view on these two topics, so take my discussion with the prerequisite ounce sized grain of salt.

What the hell is happening to the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre?

Will the world’s most famous movie theatre stop showing films on a regular basis soon? That’s the rumor as the bankrupt (and disgustingly poorly operated) Mann chain has sold it’s ownership rights to Elie Sa'maha and Don Kushner, movie producers and businessmen with an (apparent) disreputable history. A few weeks ago there were whisperings that the new owners planned to renovate the interior of the theatre to make it a trendy nightclub, because, I don’t know, I guess Hollywood doesn’t have enough venues for the young Hollywood elite to sniff cocaine off a hooker’s ass. At this point nothing has been confirmed, and this is all rumors and conjecture, though neither Sa'maha or Kushner have refuted anything, but as Rose McGowan so elegantly put it in Scream “you can only hear that Richard Gere gerbil story so many times before you start to believe it."

If that’s the case it will be the end of a slow and sad demise for the beautiful theatre (and historical landmark) as Mann failed to respond in any formidable way to changing trends and watched as the Arclight and the Cinerama Dome got the prime bookings and the Chinese was stuck with six to seven weeks run of such second tier titles like Paul, Book of Eli, and the nadir: a month plus run of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li a couple of years ago. I have to think when the news hits more mainstream press (and when the hell is that going to happen?) there will be some groundswell support to save the Chinese, and it’s a registered Historical Landmark so the building itself will still be there until the apocalypse hit (which is May 21^st according to billboards around town….wait a minute that’s exactly the day after Mann’s lease runs out, coincidence or harbinger?). Mann’s final “fuck you” to Southern California film goers by not selling the Chinese to an actual theatre chain/operation, like the American Cinematheque or even Pacific which successfully operates the El Capitan right across the street, insures that I will be pissing on the ashes of the once mighty corporation.

If you live in a town with a one screen theatre you treasure, heed this warning: visit it often, because if the Chinese theatre’s future is uncertain, no theatre is safe.

Back to the video store

I am sadden to see the death of the video rental store, and guilty as everyone else. See the convenience of Netflix with no late fees and streaming options, as well as cable and a DV-R, has led me to forgo the experience of tolling the aisles. Like Mann’s demise, I have no love lost for the bankrupt corporations like Hollywood and Blockbuster video as they're more responsible for the death of independent mom and pop video stores than Netflix when backdoor deals enabled them to fill their shelves with hundreds of copies of whatever was the big release of the moment (I remember the original Fast and the Furious film particularly being one that customers at the shop I worked at saying they’d try big blue for) while keeping pathetically inept stock of older titles. The easy accessibility of porn online also was a crushing blow.

After visiting the South Pasadena Farmer’s Market one evening recently, my wife and I stepped inside Videotheque and my love affair with video rental stores was instantly rekindled. Full of titles on Blu-Ray, DVD and yes even for those not on either format, VHS, the store is obviously ran by cinema lovers as their genre section are further subdivided into sub-divisions such as: directors, stars and even genres within genres like silent films and giallos. How can I not love a place where Meiko Kaji is designated worthy of her own section!

Additionally they seem to upgrade titles that are reissued regularly (for example they have the recently released Criterion issue of Blow Out) and stock Warner Archive titles that are otherwise unavailable short of purchasing a hard or digital copy. The staff is knowledgeable but not pretentious, and it warms the cockles to see it full of customers on a Friday night.

If you live within a short drive of Eagle Rock/Pasadena, I cannot more highly recommend Videotheque, check it out.

Movie Theatre Memories; Meridian Quad 6

With my father’s first birthday since his death just passing on Saturday, I am feeling particularly nostalgic for the time we spent together, and as anyone who spent time with my father knows, a lot of that time involved going to the movies.

As I discussed in my GORP/The Octagon review’s opening paragraphs (here), San Jose, California, where I grew up, had in the 1980’s two different types of theatres: the first runs where the blockbusters of the day would play (the Century cinedomes, you can read what I wrote about those here), and a flurry of (usually) mall located (of both the inside and strip variety) cinemas that would show second tier releases such as horror, low budget action, and kids fare as well as second run of those aforementioned blockbusters before they made their way to the dollar theatres (there was also the still in existence Camera cinemas which specialized in art, independent and foreign titles, but I didn’t start watching those until I became a teenager in the 90’s); Cannon, Crown International, Vestron and New World produced programmers were the province of these theatres.

Opening in the late 1960's, as the population of San Jose, a more suburban bay area city located fifty miles south of San Francisco, was exploding, and located on Stevens Creek boulevard, a major thoroughfare, the Meridian Quad was what is today an increasingly uncommon entity, an independently ran theatre. While Century, AMC and United Artists had a presence in the area, there were also several theatres operated without the affiliation of a major corporation at the time.

The Meridian Quad 6 had its own personality and specials including children’s matinees on summer weekdays, frequently playing double features and something that my father took advantage of, especially after his divorce to my mother, two dollar Tuesdays, where admission to any film at any time of the day only cost two bucks every Tuesday.

While the exterior building, located in the same structure as a small strip mall, wasn’t anything special architecturally speaking, especially compared to the space age domes of the Centuries, and the seating for each individual theatre probably hovered around 250, relatively small then, but actually standard in today’s huge multiplexes that try to jam as many screens in a building as possible. Each theatre had its number (one through six) plastered on the walls in a sort retro futuristic font (here's a good example), think Disneyland’s Tomorrow land circa the 1960/1970s. Since it was a small operated enterprise, and they probably did whatever was possible to keep costs at a minimum, I remember sometimes they didn’t clean the theatres between films, and it wasn’t uncommon to get your shoes stuck to the floor. But it was never the filthy havens of the disenfranchised that the grindhouses were.

In the nineties when I was self-efficient enough to take the bus and my friends and I started getting our driver’s licenses, I would take advantage of their lax rating policy enforcement (it probably also helped that I was six feet tall by the age of fourteen) and watch R rated movies there that I couldn’t get into at the much stricter AMCs. The Meridian Quad was where I was introduced to Quentin Tarantino, catching Reservoir Dogs on a double bill with the Ice T/Ice Cube starring, Walter Hill directed Trespass in early 1993. After Trespass ended I convinced my two friends that the next film had received some good notices and we should stick around, I think it was in Entertainment Weekly’s Top Ten films of the year (ironic because I now consider the two critics for that magazine amongst the worst in major publications), and well, I was blown away, it was truly a defining moment in my cinematic history, and I and my tastes would forever be changed. I don’t think I remembered a single thing from the preceding movie (though I am now a huge Walter Hill fan, so I owe it another shot). A few months later, at the age of sixteen, my friend Steve and I purchased ticket for some PG or PG-13 rated movie and snuck into see our first NC-17 film, Bad Lieutenant, needless to say that was another formative experience for us.

Looking at the release dates for the films I remember seeing at the Meridian Quad, it appears the last film I would watch there was the Disney released Three Musketeers movie featuring Kiefer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen that was released in the fall of 1993. I would move to San Francisco to go to college in August 1994. By that point the major exhibition corporations now operated theatres with ten to sixteen screens, some of which competed for bookings with the Quad, resulting in the smaller theatre to fall further down the totem pole in prime selections. Coupled with the shrinking window of time between theatrical release and home video premiere dates, the Meridian Quad would close its doors forever in 1999 and was eventually demolished. I remember the first time I drove down Stevens Creek and realized the exterior marquee was missing feeling a large sense of grief.

With the gap between a film’s theatrical release and it being available on a portable device or your home system shrinking to about three months (Warner Brothers announced recently plans to cut that down even more) as well as the vast amount of illegal copies available online, there are obviously some impending clouds over the future of film exhibition. I understand the desire to see films in a controlled environment free from twenty minutes of commercials, parking fees and other filmgoers more interested in talking or texting instead of watching the actual film they paid ten plus dollars for, but as my generation tends to do, this would be a tragic favoring of convenience over quality. We need more temples of cinematic viewing free from easy home distractions like the internet or our phones and pets. Otherwise, the quality of the product will further suffer.

I am forever grateful that my dad took the time to instill his passion for cinema, and going to the cinema, in me and hope one day to pass my love to a child of my own. I just hope there are still some wonderful theatres like the Meridian Quad to take them to.

Below are some other specific remembrances I have of the Meridian Quad, of course, the most important memory is just spending time watching films with my father and brother.

· Being fascinated with the poster for Fletch (which I don’t believe I saw there) on display in the coming soon frame, and studying all of Irwin Fletcher’s various disguises

· Gasping in disbelief as Autobots swore and Optimus Prime died in the animated Transformers film

· Being so bored with the film The Trouble With Spies that I left the theatre about a half hour into it and played video games in the small arcade for the rest of the running time

· Sneaking in large sandwiches from Togo’s under my dad’s huge Members Only jacket

· Talking to some cute girls outside after a showing of Sleepwalkers, only to be disrupted by my mother honking her horn and calling us into her car while loudly complaining about how late it was for her to have to pick us up

· Trying and failing to convince my friends to watch another movie, any movie, than Cop and a Half. What can I say, they drove.

And here are some films that I saw at the theatre in chronological order (I am probably forgetting a few titles), included are some truly awful films, and a handful of decent ones:

The 1980's
Mickey’s Christmas Carol

Rustler’s Rhapsody

Once Bitten

Transylvania 6-5000

Rocky IV (must have been after its first run)

The Care Bears Movie (uh, it was my brother’s choice, yeah that’s it!)

Jake Speed

Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home

Transformers (animated version)

King Kong Lives

Trouble with Spies (before walking out of it)

Million Dollar Mystery

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

The Monster Squad

Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Dead Bang

How I Got Into College

Cyborg

Halloween 5: The Curse of Michael Myers

The 1990s

Heart Condition

Loose Cannons

The Perfect Weapon

Sleepwalkers

Trespass

Reservoir Dogs

Bad Lieutenant

Cop and a Half

The Dark Half

Menace II Society

The Three Musketeers (1993)

Finally, the one picture I could find of the theatre online (the exterior sign at the start of the article) was from the CinemaTour website, there's some more photos of the theatres there, but they are protected from pilfering, so check it out for yourself here.

The Movies Go to the Movies: Fade to Black

As I mentioned in my review of Fade to Black, one of the enjoyments of watching the film as a Los Angeles resident is to see how familiar locations looked thirty years ago. Including, nay especially, movie theatres.

Here are some screenshots of the many theatres (some of which are no longer with us) from Fade to Black featuring a large contingency of films released and playing in 1980:

The Mann Westwood 4 (now a Whole Foods)


The Village


The Bruin

The Avco Center



The Mann Plaza--which was torn down to build, you guessed it, condos in 2005.

The Chinese Theatre--the setting for the film's final sequence. Notice that Little Darlings is opening there soon!



Some other Easter eggs that I thought people who live or have lived in LA might get a kick out of:

Ships Diner--this Googie style diner chain was long gone by the time I moved here in 2002, but I remember that a sign for the La Cienega/Olympic Blvd location still stood for years after the restaurant itself was demolished.


The Brown Derby

New Beverly Calendar--of course, as any respected film geek, Eric Binford has a calendar for the premiere Los Angeles repertory theatre on his bedroom wall. The second picture reveals some of the programming, including Rock N Roll High School and The Last Waltz

Left foreground, next to Marilyn Monroe poster.



To the extreme right

Why the New Beverly Rules: Reason Number 5 Billion Trillion Gazillion

As you can probably tell by my "Films Watched" sidebar or the fact I am, for the second consecutive year, dedicating my blog to one horror movie related post a day, I have an itch for consuming as much cinematic horror content throughout the month of October as possible.

While most of the options playing in multiplex theatres this month bear little interest for me (but hey, thanks for at least releasing horror films in October for a change Hollywood studios!), luckily in Los Angeles we have multiple repertory theatre options.

And when the New Beverly released their calendar earlier in the month, one particular double bill stood out for me, the awesome Halloween centric combination of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983, Tommy Lee Wallace) and Trick R Treat (2008, Michael Dougherty), the second and third best Halloween set horror films of all time!

Of course, John Carpenter’s Halloween is the granddaddy of them all, but it’s so prevalent in the repertory market and on television that the appearance of these particular films, one of which probably hasn’t not screened in America since it’s short theatrical release 27 years ago and another that was buried with a direct to DVD release is indicative of the creative and inventive programming that makes being a Los Angeles cinema fan so lucrative.

So I know where I will be on either Friday or Saturday next week, the schedule for the shows and my writings of each film are below:

Trick R Treat (review)

Friday, October 29^th @ 7:30 pm –director Michael Dougherty will be at the theatre IN PERSON and host a costume contest

Saturday, October 30^th @ 4:00pm and 7:30pm

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (an appreciation, my second post at this blog)

Friday, October 29^th@ 9:20pm

Saturday, October 30^th @ 5:35 and 9:20pm—a Q & A with director Tommy Lee Wallace to follow the latter showing

Some other great repertory screenings occurring the week of Halloween around Los Angeles

The New Beverly

Sunday and Monday, October 24^th and 25^th—A Bob Hope Comedic Horror Double Bill

The Cat and the Canary (1939)—Sunday @ 4:10 & 7:30, Monday @ 7:30 only

The Ghost Breakers (1940)—Sunday @ 5:45 & 9:05; Monday @ 9:05 only

Tuesday and Wednesday, October 26^th and 27th—A Terence Fisher Directed Hammer Horror Double Bill

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) @ 7:30 both nights

Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969) @ 9:25 both nights

Thursday, October 28^th-A Robert Quarry Starring Double Bill

Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) @ 7:30pm

The Return of Count Yorga (1971) @ 9:20pm

Sunday, October 31^st and Monday, November 1^st—A Universal Horror Double Bill, man

The Wolf Man—Sunday @4:00 and 7:00pm, Monday @ 7:30pm only

The Invisible Man—Sunday @ 5:30 and 8:30pm, Monday @9:00pm only

The Cinefamily

All showtimes start at 8pm unless noted, they also tend to start late from my experience

Sunday, October 24^th-A Katt Shea directed double bill

Stripped to Kill (1987)

Poison Ivy (1992)

Monday, October 25^th

The Blob (1988)—hosted by comedian and Mr. Show cast member Brian Posehn

Thursday, October 28^th—Two Sergio Martino directed Giallos!

All the Colors in the Dark (1972)

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971)

Sunday, October 31^st—A William Castle double bill—starts at 6pm

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

The Tingler (1958)

American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre

Wednesday, October 27^th

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) @ 7:30pm—a discussion with composer Charles Bernstein follows the film

Thursday, October 28^th-A Universal Horror Bela Lugosi starring double bill—show starts at 7:30pm

The Raven (1935)

The Black Cat (1934)

Saturday, October 30^th @ 7:30pm

Ghostbusters (1984) @ 7:30pm

American Cinematheque @ the Aero

Wednesday, October 27^th @ 7:30pm

Donnie Darko (2001) —with live commentary from writer and director Richard Kelly

Friday, October 29^th @ 7:30pm

The Changeling (1980)—discussion with director Peter Medak and producer Joel Michaels follows the film

Saturday, October 30^th @ 7:30pm—Fifth Annual Dusk to Dawn Horrorthon

Fright Night (1985)

Don’t Look in the Basement (1973)

Candyman (1992)

Bloody Birthday (1981)

Phantasm (1979)

Cemetary Man (Dellamorte Dellamore) (1996)

Sunday, October 31^st @ 5:00pm

The Monster Squad (1987)—discussion with director Fred Dekker follows the film

Hope your Halloween week is full of cinema treasures!