The other day on his site, Ken Levine wrote about revival house cinemas like (in our town) the Nuart and the Beverly Cinema. He got me to thinking of the many evenings I spent at the Nuart and I started to write a blog post about it — then I realized I already did. Here's a little of it…
In the past, when Turner Classic Movies ran a bad or incomplete print of something, it has usually been a matter of the rights holder, whoever it is, supplying a bad copy. It used to remind me of the NuArt Theater over in West Los Angeles. Back before home video, it was the main place many of us saw classic films of the past. They ran a different double-bill every evening so they went through a lot of movies and good copies were not always available. Each month, when the following month's schedule came out, it was a moment of excitement ("Hey, look what they're running!") but also of reservation ("Are they going to have that lousy, incomplete copy that's making the rounds?").
The NuArt had a problem that I suppose plagues every "repertory cinema" house. They have to advertise their schedule well in advance but they don't actually get the print of the film until a day or two before the screening date. If it arrives and is chopped-up, scratched and a mass of splices, what can they do? Often with older films, that's the only print the distributor has. I can recall times when people stormed out of a program at the NuArt and demanded their money back. I also recall one time when we arrived there for an advertised evening of (I think) obscure Billy Wilder films and a hand-lettered sign on the box office announced something like, "We received lousy prints of these films at the last minute. If you want to put up with splices and missing scenes, fine. If you don't like it and want to walk out, we'll refund your ticket price. Just don't get mad at us. It's not our fault."
(The NuArt is still open, by the way, still showing old movies, usually for a week at a time. They're even running The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight every Saturday and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls at midnight on October 13. Here's a current schedule. Sad to say, I haven't been in the place since vintage motion pictures began coming out on Beta.)
Anyway, when I hear of Turner Classic Movies getting stuck with a bad print, it used to remind me of the NuArt. But then I realized: This is the era of digital video. The company that owns the film can send them a copy well in advance. TCM can demand to see that print before they schedule the film and decline to schedule it at all until they have a good, complete copy.
I dunno about the NuArt these days but the Beverly Cinema (aka "The New Bev") continues to project actual film — usually 35mm, sometimes 16. I admire the devotion to the way movies were originally shown but I think it's a losing battle. Good film prints of past movies will only get harder to locate and preserve and if the picture quality of digital isn't already better, it will be soon.
Ken made the point about how great it is to go see a comedy film with a live audience. He's right, of course. I rarely watch my fave, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, alone or on a small screen. When it's nearby and on a big screen with a good audience, I usually go.
Ever since Laserdiscs came out, I've been making a suggestion to darn near everyone I encounter who's in the home video biz. In addition to (or even instead of) a commentary track, offer your customers the option of an audience track. I don't mean canned laughter. Show a print of the film to be a big, hot audience and record their reaction. It wouldn't cost much to do and I'll bet some people would like watching certain movies with that. Since they can switch it on and off, no one should object to it.
So far, every single person in the industry who has heard my suggestion has said, "Hey, that's a great idea" and saying that has been all they've ever done with it. But hey, one of these days…
In any case, I think there's a lot of be said for the old-fashioned moviegoing experience beyond audience laughter. There's something nice about going someplace besides your own den to see a movie, something about making it an event or a date involving dinner before and maybe dessert after…something nice about watching it on a big screen while eating popcorn you didn't have to pop yourself.
Yeah, when you watch it at home you can hit "PAUSE" if the phone rings or nature calls. But some movies are enhanced by taking you prisoner, forcing you to shut out other distractions. I took Amber to see The French Connection for her first time at the Motion Picture Academy theater. I own a DVD but one of the reasons I think she loved the movie was that we largely shut out the real world and the current era.
The future of movie theaters is probably dependent on their offering you something you can't get at home. The multiplexes showing current films can offer the opportunity to see the latest releases — the ones everyone's talking about — right when they first come out. What the revival houses have to offer has changed. Before home video, it was the opportunity to see great movies of the past without commercial breaks, TV Standards and Practices, or cutting for time. Now, it's the experience of going out to the movies. We hope these places stick around forever, if only for that.