West Coast Repertory Cinema

[beamish14]

Sony and Alamo Drafthouse will restore Cinerama Dome

I look forward to upcoming seasons of thoroughly mediocre repertory screenings and forgettable genre films

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Sony and Alamo Drafthouse will restore Cinerama Dome

I look forward to upcoming seasons of thoroughly mediocre repertory screenings and forgettable genre films

I’d rather it remain closed than taken over by Alamo Drafthouse. Really caters to the worst, horror graphic-tee with katakana crowd I find insufferable. Do people even go to the one in Downtown still? If you look forward to forgettable fake cult films, I look forward to sitting in a theater that smells like chicken wings on chairs stained by IPAs.

[Lowry_Sam]

I am disappointed that no one in the industry took it over and turned it into a museum/rep house for wide screen/Cinerama films. Given the resurgence in popularity of 70mm and VistaVision this would have seemed to be an easy venture.

Unfortunately in San Francisco Alamo Drafthouse is often the only place to see many new independent releases inside the city.

[Lowry_Sam]

Paul Verhoeven's last Dutch film The 4th Man is playing in 35mm at the Academy Museum tomorrow. It's been so long since I've last seen it, I'm almost tempted to drive down to catch it.

[beamish14]

Paul Verhoeven's last Dutch film The 4th Man is playing in 35mm at the Academy Museum tomorrow. It's been so long since I've last seen it, I'm almost tempted to drive down to catch it.

Zwartboek (Black Book) was his last Dutch feature! He actually came to a number of screenings of his work at the American Cinematheque almost 20 years ago

[Lowry_Sam]

That's true, guess I should've added "before he found success in Hollywood"

[senseabove]

The Portal, a new 50-seat, 35mm/16mm-capable cinema in SF in the outer Mission/Bernal Heights, has a kickstarter to get them over the final hump to their intended opening day this fall.

[Lowry_Sam]

The Portal, a new 50-seat, 35mm/16mm-capable cinema in SF in the outer Mission/Bernal Heights, has a kickstarter to get them over the final hump to their intended opening day this fall.

Wow! After coming back froma trip to NYC, I've been complaining about the lack of cinema in the bay area (outside of festivals, which only screen titles once), The Stanford seems to be the only theater in the bay area where I get excited to see the upcoming program anymore. So this is good timing!

2 weeks ago I just sent an email to the Roxie's programmers (in response to the unimpressive fall schedule) complaining that my list of new films that I'd like to see (culled from Cannes/TIFF & critics top 10 lists) keeps growing & that the new films getting praised by critics never end up screening anywhere in the bay area. At the same, many of those from last year's least (particularly foreign films) are still not readily available on disc or streaming. Meanwhile, the Roxie's non-documentary programming is filled with the same titles that are screenng at cineplexes (including the Alamo Drafthouse only a few blocks away) or are readily available on blu-ray (esp. 80s teen films or the best known Hollywood classics).

When I first moved to SF area in '89, the Roxie would play Wong Kar Wai's newest for a week, you could go to a weekend all-nighter with 4 films from John Woo or Takashi Miike at the Four Star, you could catch the newest indies or imports at The California, Opera Plaza & Embarcadero, while The Castro screened something like The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover or Playtime on 70mm 2x a night for a week or have an Ophuls or Russ Meyers retrospective that included almost all their films (on 35mm no less) with at least 2 titles per night and Yerba Buena would have experimental video screenings. The Chronicle's pink pages were filled with film options each week. Now when I look at Screen Slate, the options are mostly titles that are available on blu-ray.

From the kickstarter:

These closings have left the region with a dearth of cinemas, with repertory and foreign language programming hit especially hard. Institutions like the Roxie and the PFA are carrying the torch, but there simply aren’t enough screens in San Francisco for many smaller independent, foreign, and experimental works to find a home.

While some of this is true, the problem isn't just the number of screens, it's also the programming. Since January, I've only seen one French film from the past year in any of the bay area theaters (The Stranger). There are a lot of foreign films screening at the AMC, Cinemark, & Regal chains between SF & SJ but they are the newest blockbusters from Asia (especially India & China, some Korean & Japanese, occasionally Thai or Vietnamese) at the same time they are being released in their home market (or even before), cookie-cutter action, horror, or romantic comedies. For some reason, Latin American (even bigger names) films are rarely screened (outside of the Roxie), despite having the biggest potential audience. And European cinema is non-existent.

Before BAMPFA moved to its current location, BAMPFA would hold comprehensive film series with well over 50% of a director's entire output for at least 2 or 3 directors each semester. 2 films from the same director back-to-back plus a third from another director each and every day...all from prints: Ophuls, Bresson, Mizoguchi, Lang, Godard, Fassbinder, Ozu, Bunuel. The recent Naruse series used to be the rule & now it's a rarity. BAMPFA's move off campus & into a new museum/theater was promised to bring us not just a better viewing experience, it also promised more film screening opportunities & yet it's brought us less. You're lucky to see more than 6 or 7 screenings per week on the calendar now.

I am glad to see a new theater open. Upon first glance, I thought we might be getting our own Metrograph, but it's only one screen & not clear from the bios how unique the programming will be. But I do wish it success & will help with a kick start.