Speaking of Robert Redford (yes I was, at the end of my previous post) his first Sundance Theater just opened here. Anticipation of its coming put a small locally owned movie theater out of business; they saw the handwriting on the wall. Movie tickets at Sundance cost $10 plus a $3 "service charge" even when you walk up to the box office 5 minutes before the show starts because "every seat is reserved." (That may be par for the course in big cities, but it is unheard of here.) Now the hoi polloi of our fair city can enjoy independent films in a rarefied setting and congratulate themselves on how they are patrons of the arts. (Yes, I know I'm being cynical and unfair. But I'm feeling curmudgeonly.)
Sigh. I miss the old Majestic theater in downtown Madison, with its broken down seats, precariously hanging chandelier which we always sat under on the off-chance it would fall so we could sue them and never have to work again, brewers yeast to shake on your popcorn, and every night a double-feature of independently made, vintage, or art films all for a couple of bucks. That was before independent film making was big business, raking it in for the likes of Robert Redford, and there were art cinema houses in just about every college town. It was big excitement when the Majestic would publish their monthly calendar, which was stuck with magnets to many a refrigerator around the near east side of Madison.
Oh jeez, I'm turning into a codger. My 18-year old daughter, who is planning to study film production in the fall, does not believe that once upon a time her mom really loved movies. Were the movies themselves better, or just the environment?
10 comments:
Yes Luminiferous Curmudgeon,
My cinematic education started with the university film societies. For $1.00 I could see Charlie Chaplin or Fred Astaire or Herzog or Kurosawa or 007 or some classic like Casablanca. There was a Young Socialist series, an international socialist series, and a women's studies series.
I loved the Majestic, their herbal tea, the ratty seats. I saw lots of great foreign movies there.
Maybe our movie time is over? Should we done our 70's clothes and start to play Mah Jong together?
I'm really puzzled by the Sundance theater. It would probably do better in The Hamptons.
Ah, yes. I considered going back to reminisce about the campus film societies. $1 to see Harold and Maude for the umpteenth time (or the Marx Brothers or the latest Werner Herzog film), and then go get ice cream at the Union, slide down the tubular fire escape at Science Hall, and ride your bike home in the dark along the Lakeshore Path with the person you're going to be celebrating your twentieth wedding anniversary with, years into the future. THOSE were the days.
Ah, yes! The university film societies! They were wonderful! Foreign films, independent films, classics and second-run box-office smashes! I also seem to recall that, in those days, cigarette smoking in the theaters was considered normal. Marijuana was also smoked openly in the theater. I guess it's time to learn how to play Mah Jong.
I do remember one time going to see Harold & Maude, and looking around before the movie started to notice that, of the 10 other people in the lecture hall, they were all Asian men. Not the audience you'd expect for Harold & Maude. So I scoot over and ask the nearest man, "What movie is showing?" to which he replies in a very thick accent, "The Story of O"! Oops. Wrong lecture hall!
Oh no. Commenter Ed and I share the same brain! That's what happens when you're married for 19 years, 361 days ...
I can't believe it! I write a comment, only to find that, In the time it took for me to write the comment, you had already posted a very similar one. In fact, you even used the same opening sentence! Hmmmph!
Aarrgh! You did it again! Why do you hate America?
Most movies are all garbage any more so I haven't actually paid much attention to anything going on with them.
Time to play Mah Jong. Yes. Perhaps so. :)
Peace,
~Chani
"Hostel 2" will be the box office winner this weekend. A movie that graphically depicts and thereby promotes the humiliation, torture, rape, mutilation, and murder of women. For fun.
We have "The Lion In Winter" waiting for us this week. Last week, we watched "Jaws" (the first one) and "On the Waterfront."
Yeah, it's not just you: the movies used to be better.
Even the independents that come here fresh from the film festivals often veer toward the cute variety ... I am so sick of sequels. Pirates of the Caribbean 12 in which Johnny Depp is a rapscallion but cute. And so on and so forth. oh, heck. I AM a curmudgeon. Glad I'm not the only one.
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