In 1980, the Red Vic became a movie theater and devoted itself to repertory cinema. Back then, its competition was from other revival houses. Today, most of that competition is gone, and it struggles to compete with DVDs and Netflix. The competition is much harder. Those who read today’s Chronicle Datebook section know that the [...]
Filed under: Theaters | 1 Comment »
I’m sitting in the Niles Essenay Silent Movie Museum, waiting for the Laurel & Hardy show to begin. First thing that hit me when I entered the lobby was the significantly larger store. Unfortunately, I arrived at the last minute and didn’t have time to explore it. Continuing at intermission: Just watched Three Stooges short, [...]
Filed under: Comedy, Theaters | 1 Comment »
At the Pacific Film Archive, November/December is always the shortest schedule of the year. Thank the holidays for that. A lot of people go to movies on Christmas, but they don’t go to the Pacific Film Archive. But the PFA has a promising month and a half of cinematic studies and pleasures. Certainly the most [...]
Filed under: Theaters, Upcoming & Local | Leave a Comment »
I’m trying to get back into the swing of things here, both with movie-going and blogging about movie-going. Saturday night I took the plunge. I started the evening at the Pacific Film Archive for Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres. I’ve mentioned other events around the book Left in the Dark [...]
Filed under: First-person Report, Theaters | Leave a Comment »
I just received word that the Cerrito Theater’s box office was vandalized last night. A window was broken, as was a piece of historic glass that had been rescued during the restoration. If you have any information, please contact the El Cerrito Police Department.
Filed under: Theaters | Leave a Comment »
I just received the following press release from Landmark Theaters: 30 August, 2010 – Landmark Theatres announces that they have come to an agreement with the landlord of San Francisco’s Clay Theatre to remain open for the short term. “We hope continuing operation at the Clay will give all interested parties the opportunity to pursue [...]
Filed under: Theaters | Leave a Comment »
I’ve had the new September/October Pacific Film Archive schedule for a few days now. I’m finally getting around to telling you about it. From my point of view, the most interesting series on the schedule is Shakespeare on Screen, running for the entire two months. It contains some obvious choices (Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, Olivier’s [...]
Filed under: Theaters, Upcoming & Local | Leave a Comment »
My posts have been very Kurosawa, lately. That’s understandable as my Kurosawa Diary and the Pacific Film Archive’s Akira Kurosawa Centennial series come simultaneously to an end. But I figured I needed to write something about the death of Landmark’s Clay Theatre. In case you haven’t heard, the Clay, which may be the only remaining [...]
Filed under: Theaters | Leave a Comment »
I caught Agora at Berkeley’s Shattuck Theater last night. It was my first experience with one of their newly re-appointed “lounge” theaters. Both the movie and the theater disappointed. The lounges have big, wide loveseats rather than conventional theater seats—great for cuddling, but not of much use when you go to a movie by yourself. [...]
Filed under: First-person Report, Reviews, Theaters | 1 Comment »
I’ve added a new theater to the Bayflicks list, VIZ Cinema. Located near Japantown and the Kabuki, the Viz seats only 143 and projects film and HD video. It has THX-certified sound. It specializes in Japanese cinema. In fact, I found out about it from a comment on my The Bad Sleep Well piece. Thanks, Brian, [...]
Filed under: Bayflicks, Theaters | 2 Comments »
