I was hiding away in a small red two bedroom house in the woods, working on my movie. 8 am to 8pm were the hours I set for myself. At 8pm, I would stop and project a movie on the living room wall I left undecorated specifically so I could project movies. I’d been keeping a list of stuff I’d never seen and took this opportunity to cross titles off that list, including a month and a half’s worth of Humphrey Bogart films, along with the massive and legendary Lawrence of Arabia, which desperately needed a wall to be projected upon.
Around 11pm, I’d put movie podcasts on as I’d lie in bed, waiting to fall asleep. Every one of those podcasts came from LA and they all mentioned the New Beverly Cinema regularly. The New Bev is a legendary theatre in LA that, according to its website, has been a revival house since 1978. It’s currently owned by Quentin Tarantino, who also programmed the schedule for his first four years as owner, though he’s since passed that duty onto someone else. Always on Film is the slogan that dons their marquee, signifying their commitment to remaining a fully analog theatre that only projects film either on 16mm or 35mm. They usually screen double features and their programming spans the entire length of cinema history, from the silent era up to the latest movies bold enough to still be printed on film.
Across America, people have stopped going to movie theaters. Why? Short answer: Because most of those theaters suck. They overcharge for admission, overcharge for concessions and blast people out of their seats with sound systems trying to overcompensate for the fact that a good amount of movies these days look like they were shot for digital TV. And now that people have the same digital technology at home that they have in theaters, it’s no surprise everyone’s thinking, Why pay all that money, when I can watch the same movies in my living room?
Before I moved to Los Angeles, I managed a movie theatre in Upstate New York that screened movies digitally. It didn’t take much to project them. You just pressed PLAY, the same as you would at home. There’s no care or artistry to the process anymore, which is clearly reflected in the lack of attendees. Where I lived in Hudson, NY, the theater in town was an ugly, empty dump at the end of a strip mall that had six small cold, grey rooms with thirty or so seats in each and a digital screen in front. They looked more like torture chambers than theaters. I hated going there and found nothing inspiring about it, except when I felt like throwing up.
What people can’t do at home and what they still do at the New Bev is watch Jaws on 35mm film in a dark room with a bunch of strangers, immersed in the collective experience of being pulled in by celluloid moving at twenty four frames per second. One of my favorite experiences at the New Bev was when I went to see a Marx Bros double feature and the theatre was packed with people of all ages, with the entire audience roaring with laughter at every line Groucho spurted and every gag Chico and Harpo executed. That was truly special because last time I saw Duck Soup in New York City, there was only a handful of people there and I was beginning to feel like the cinematic experience was over.
At the end of every movie at the New Bev, the audience applauds out of respect for the film and the filmmakers. Depending on the movie, they’ll applaud during the opening credits as well, like when I went to see Gremlins 2 and seminal B movie actor Dick Miller’s name appeared on the screen. When the director Joe Dante’s name appeared, people straight up lost their shit.
The New Bev isn’t the only theater Tarantino saved from extinction. He recently bought the Vista Theatre, which hardcore, punk and metal fans know from the cover of the Suicidal Tendencies album Lights Camera Revolution, on which the band stands atop the theatre’s marquee. Like the New Bev, the Vista exclusively projects movies on film, though it’s bigger in size, with a cathedral-like ceiling, giant decorative chandeliers and old school decor that’s reflective of the theatre’s history. It truly is a special treat seeing a movie there. A few months ago, I went to the Vista to see William Friedkin’s unsung masterpiece Sorcerer. To see it on that giant screen in that giant room with a sold out audience was about the most exciting thing I had done all year. Los Angeles knows what it takes to make going to the movies a special experience.
There are many challenges to living in Los Angeles. Similar to my experiences in NY, the high cost of living and difficulty finding decent paying work have been tough barricades to negotiate. Still, living close to the New Bev and the Vista, along with a community that knows its value, has been exciting. I feel as if sanity has been restored. The movie going experience over the last twenty years in the rest of America got progressively worse with each passing year. The transformation to digital was quick, abrupt and done without care. It was a huge blow that sucked the soul out of movies. A good half of my time at the movies was spent thinking, This movie looks like shit. Now that I live in a city that celebrates cinema properly and with passion, I can go back to enjoying the experience. Sanity has been restored.
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