Forgive me for going slightly off topic on this occasion, the great thing about France is that even smaller and medium sized cities can support an art house multiplex…the down side is the gradual infiltration of Subway sandwiches
I remember seeing the Alien billboard on Broadway as early as December 1978 and not knowing what it was about…When I saw Alien in its first week at the Leroy (now Vendome) in the main screen in 70 mm I got it…Great great picture with an incredible mix of talent – David Giler the Hollywood insider, Walter Hill the existensial action specialist, Dan O'Bannon, HR Giger and Ridley Scott and a guest of professionals Ian Holm, John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Yaphet Kotto
I saw it in about the second or third week of its original run in Paris at the Gaumont Ambassade on the Champs Elysees which I don’t believe had been plexed yet and would have been 70mm…I don’t remember the no credits at the time…just completely blown away by the experience…The Grand Rex or Normandie might be the only better circumstances in Paris…
I also saw it on the original run in Brussels at the Leroy now Vendome then already a triplex but as good as anything else in town…had also seen first runs of Deer Hunter and Alien in what was a great year for movies
In my twenty – thirty years in London this is one of those with the nearby Cineworld Chelsea that has been an ABC, A Cannon, MGM, Virgin, UGC, and now Cineworld…it serves its purpose in the neighborhood efficiently…and am pleasantly surprised it has survived even if it looks a bit tired at the heels…Have seen White Palace, Godfather III, Big Lebowski, Best in Show, Man in the Moon, Sixth Sense, Deep Blue Sea, Buena Vista Social Club, State and Main, O Brother How Art Thou, House of Sand and Fog, Other People’s Money, Dr T and the Women here over the years…probably one or two more
The quintessential Broadway single screen if not grindhouse I was well into my twenties before I dared go in here – can’t imagine it was any studio’s first choice for a Broadway first run but was considerably smaller than the State or Cinerama twins…It was a late night show of 48 Hours and I do believe someone pulled a gun while we were waiting in line to buy tickets…A few years later saw Crimes and Misdemeanors here as well…
A two screener when I lived in Brussels in 1979 often playing off pictures in the smaller screens of the Capitole…Saw La Cage aux Folles here and probably a couple of others
Remember this as a pretty grand experience for Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes…as a multiplex the main room is ok, the smaller screens can be hit or miss…in the past couple of years have seen American Gangster, Bee Movie, The Incredibles, Haunted Mansion, a Sidney Lumet with Vin Diesel, and a French picture there
Thanks to westbethkid and nyretiree for remembering the Autopub…a restaurant my dad Alan Lewis set up with the Longchamps company based on the Pub Renault in Paris…great concept that may have been a couple of years too early or too late in the economic cycle…The Drive-In movie concept within the restaurant truly predated the movie & draughthouses of today was a lot of fun
A great great multiplex that remains civil even when it’s packed…Saw a lot of bunch of pictures here over the past couple of years including Spiderman 2, Bug, In the Valley of Elah, Control, Death Proof, The Good Shepherd, Paris Je T'Aime, The Lives of Others
Only made one trip out here even though it was a quick run from my studio at the Gare de Lyon…a great multiplex environment with a good choice of restaurants around it…just a fun place to see movies even if I did most of my moviegoing at the Opera, the Champs or Les Halles
We can dream but wouldn’t this make a nice companion to the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas almost diagonally across the street…Book this as the flagship with 300 seats for the opening first x weeks and move the feature over after that into the plex
I spent a lot of times in the City 2 complex when I lived in Brussels in 1979 but oddly enough only saw a couple of pictures here – Cross of Iron 2 and Return to the Poseidon…loved the look and feel of this American style multiplex but saw most of my movies uptown at the Acropole, Capitole and LeRoy complexes
The only picture I saw here was Nighthawks…In 1981 this theatre, probably because of its proximity to the Bahnhof, was run down and had lost its luster…the big big releases went to the Corso 1 and/or the Apollo Cinerama
This is a tidy 200 seater on a nice commercial square around the corner from the Corso…great to see that it has survived the 30 years since I saw Cage aux Folles 2 and Postman Always Rings Twice There…Thanks to Ken Roe for adding this run of Zurich theatres
We saw the last Christopher Guest picture (definitely the worst) in the Picturehouse…definitely a quality viewing experience but restricted in the food and beverages they allow in…a great looking place to see movies overall with showtimes from early morning until very late – the great thing about Singapore is that it practically never sleeps…another treat is in this complex there’s a small exhibition dedicated to Cathay with some cool artifacts on cinemagoing in Singapore
Essentially my local since its opening in 2001…The streetside marquee is limited, the mall experience so-so (particularly since the Books Etc decamped about two years ago), the popcorn has gotten really bad, the ambience a bit louche – the occasional mobile phone does go off but once you’re in the screen the stadium effect takes hold and it all works as a cinema going experience…but they are generous with coupons as a policy and vouchers if there is a malfunction
The programming for a chain multiplex has not been disgraceful either – the neighbourhood is truly multicultural and they manage to work in the odd art and foreign film and even some studio limited runs…Had the rare and unfortunate distinction of being the only patron for a 7:00 pm show of The Express recently – it’s not a bad picture but the market for movies about dying American footballers is limited
I tend to favor a tube ride to the Gate or Coronet Notting Hill these days and it will be interesting how two multiplexes survive if and when the Cinema De Lux complex in Westfield opens up across the way
A roll call of pictures we’ve seen here would include Zoolander, Seabiscuit, Anchorman, Master and Commander, Big Fish, Bourne Identity, Inside Man, Quiet American, Changeling, The Express, Open Range, Casino Royale, Bruce Almighty, Monster’s Ball, Minority Report, Devil Wears Prada, Capote, Kinsey, Good Night and Good Luck, The Simpsons (interrupted by an alert), American Splendor, The Wrestler, Oceans’s 11, Catch Me If You Can, Lost in Translation, Volver, Hollywoodland (a London Film Festival Surprise Film showing), Flags of Our Fathers, Far from Heaven, Chicago, About Schmidt, In the Bedroom, Sideways, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, The Walker and probably several more
I’m now repeating myself but that’s Hollywood for you…this was a really cool theatre probably 10 years behind the times for its own good…Opened at a time when road shows were a thing of the past and where there relatively few big pictures to fill it at 1400 seats…by the time this had opened the State was already a sizeable twin, the Ziegfeld was closing intermittently, the Penthouse/Cinerama was showing dross from American International and the Astor Plaza was the really big showcase theatre on Broadway…so basically it was Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno and downhill from there
A shame because the escalator ride was fun, the ticketing with cashier style tickets rather than hard tickets a novelty, and because it was just big…in many ways it could have been as a single as good an experience as the Astor Plaza (and I saw Jaws at the Rivoli, and Star Wars at the Astor Plaza opening weekend) and as a twin not bad at all if it had been part of a better circuit
The oddest most unsatisfactory of several DC theatres I experienced in the mid 90s…Managed to survive Hoop Dreams, Dead Man Walking and American Buffalo in Number 3, Fargo, The Postman and La Haine in Number 1 but you have to wonder how they got away with it not that the Foundry or Dupont were much better…on the other hand they didnt have a pillar in the middle
Actually saw Blue Collar here in 1979…Brussels pre Kineopolis had many more downtown cinemas and even though this felt like a ghost town at night it showed some offbeat less commercial fare…
Oh and the movie of Richard Nader’s rock and roll revival shows Let the Good Times Roll with Chuck Berry and Bill Haley and the Comets with decent sound in the early 70s when they were booking Columbia Showcase product
Another one of my growing up at the movies landmarks…Vivid memories of the Tower East with Fantasia, Yellow Submarine, a couple of dire MGM Showcase runs of Doris Day in Caprice and Tony Curtis in Dont Make Waves, then some real landmarks – Love Story, The Godfather first show opening Saturday weekend, Deliverance, The Great Gatsby (my Dad who wasn’t cheap making faces at the $4.50 ticket price) and actually a better picture in retrospect, The Stepford Wives, All the President’s Men, Mississippi Burning
The programming has always been a mix of arthouse and mainstream showcase and I could never in my mind imagine how they could twin it effectively…in many ways it is lucky it’s in a condo in the basement rather than above ground…one of the reasons for its survival vs say the Beekman…The Upper East Side’s silk stocking needs a theatre like this which can day date effectively with Broadway or the Upper West Side or even the Ziegfeld…what strikes me now is how long pictures stay there…Monster’s Ball was there for nearly 6 months a few years ago…in that way its not unlike the Paris
This is still a great place to see an “event” movie whether on the full screen or “grand large” with the screen dropping down onto the proscenium. When the lights are finally dimmed, you can still make out some of the features of the balconies and are really transported somewhere. Saw Miami Vice and Apocalypto there and the experience was not dissimilar to seeing a great action or blaxploitation picture in the 70s or 80s in say the Criterion or Rivoli. No the neighborhood isn’t one of Paris' best but it is still Paris.
Regret having missed Neil Young live there but bless the French for landmarking it
Forgive me for going slightly off topic on this occasion, the great thing about France is that even smaller and medium sized cities can support an art house multiplex…the down side is the gradual infiltration of Subway sandwiches
I remember seeing the Alien billboard on Broadway as early as December 1978 and not knowing what it was about…When I saw Alien in its first week at the Leroy (now Vendome) in the main screen in 70 mm I got it…Great great picture with an incredible mix of talent – David Giler the Hollywood insider, Walter Hill the existensial action specialist, Dan O'Bannon, HR Giger and Ridley Scott and a guest of professionals Ian Holm, John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Yaphet Kotto
I saw it in about the second or third week of its original run in Paris at the Gaumont Ambassade on the Champs Elysees which I don’t believe had been plexed yet and would have been 70mm…I don’t remember the no credits at the time…just completely blown away by the experience…The Grand Rex or Normandie might be the only better circumstances in Paris…
I also saw it on the original run in Brussels at the Leroy now Vendome then already a triplex but as good as anything else in town…had also seen first runs of Deer Hunter and Alien in what was a great year for movies
In my twenty – thirty years in London this is one of those with the nearby Cineworld Chelsea that has been an ABC, A Cannon, MGM, Virgin, UGC, and now Cineworld…it serves its purpose in the neighborhood efficiently…and am pleasantly surprised it has survived even if it looks a bit tired at the heels…Have seen White Palace, Godfather III, Big Lebowski, Best in Show, Man in the Moon, Sixth Sense, Deep Blue Sea, Buena Vista Social Club, State and Main, O Brother How Art Thou, House of Sand and Fog, Other People’s Money, Dr T and the Women here over the years…probably one or two more
It was the same winter! The Hollywood Twin was doing revivals at the time…a packed house for Breaker Morant and Gallipoli
The quintessential Broadway single screen if not grindhouse I was well into my twenties before I dared go in here – can’t imagine it was any studio’s first choice for a Broadway first run but was considerably smaller than the State or Cinerama twins…It was a late night show of 48 Hours and I do believe someone pulled a gun while we were waiting in line to buy tickets…A few years later saw Crimes and Misdemeanors here as well…
A two screener when I lived in Brussels in 1979 often playing off pictures in the smaller screens of the Capitole…Saw La Cage aux Folles here and probably a couple of others
Remember this as a pretty grand experience for Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes…as a multiplex the main room is ok, the smaller screens can be hit or miss…in the past couple of years have seen American Gangster, Bee Movie, The Incredibles, Haunted Mansion, a Sidney Lumet with Vin Diesel, and a French picture there
Thanks to westbethkid and nyretiree for remembering the Autopub…a restaurant my dad Alan Lewis set up with the Longchamps company based on the Pub Renault in Paris…great concept that may have been a couple of years too early or too late in the economic cycle…The Drive-In movie concept within the restaurant truly predated the movie & draughthouses of today was a lot of fun
A great great multiplex that remains civil even when it’s packed…Saw a lot of bunch of pictures here over the past couple of years including Spiderman 2, Bug, In the Valley of Elah, Control, Death Proof, The Good Shepherd, Paris Je T'Aime, The Lives of Others
Only made one trip out here even though it was a quick run from my studio at the Gare de Lyon…a great multiplex environment with a good choice of restaurants around it…just a fun place to see movies even if I did most of my moviegoing at the Opera, the Champs or Les Halles
We can dream but wouldn’t this make a nice companion to the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas almost diagonally across the street…Book this as the flagship with 300 seats for the opening first x weeks and move the feature over after that into the plex
I spent a lot of times in the City 2 complex when I lived in Brussels in 1979 but oddly enough only saw a couple of pictures here – Cross of Iron 2 and Return to the Poseidon…loved the look and feel of this American style multiplex but saw most of my movies uptown at the Acropole, Capitole and LeRoy complexes
The only picture I saw here was Nighthawks…In 1981 this theatre, probably because of its proximity to the Bahnhof, was run down and had lost its luster…the big big releases went to the Corso 1 and/or the Apollo Cinerama
This is a tidy 200 seater on a nice commercial square around the corner from the Corso…great to see that it has survived the 30 years since I saw Cage aux Folles 2 and Postman Always Rings Twice There…Thanks to Ken Roe for adding this run of Zurich theatres
We saw the last Christopher Guest picture (definitely the worst) in the Picturehouse…definitely a quality viewing experience but restricted in the food and beverages they allow in…a great looking place to see movies overall with showtimes from early morning until very late – the great thing about Singapore is that it practically never sleeps…another treat is in this complex there’s a small exhibition dedicated to Cathay with some cool artifacts on cinemagoing in Singapore
Add to this list Appaloosa (amazing I can’t remember the recent ones), Along Came Polly, Intolerable Cruelty, Stranger than Fiction, United 93,
Essentially my local since its opening in 2001…The streetside marquee is limited, the mall experience so-so (particularly since the Books Etc decamped about two years ago), the popcorn has gotten really bad, the ambience a bit louche – the occasional mobile phone does go off but once you’re in the screen the stadium effect takes hold and it all works as a cinema going experience…but they are generous with coupons as a policy and vouchers if there is a malfunction
The programming for a chain multiplex has not been disgraceful either – the neighbourhood is truly multicultural and they manage to work in the odd art and foreign film and even some studio limited runs…Had the rare and unfortunate distinction of being the only patron for a 7:00 pm show of The Express recently – it’s not a bad picture but the market for movies about dying American footballers is limited
I tend to favor a tube ride to the Gate or Coronet Notting Hill these days and it will be interesting how two multiplexes survive if and when the Cinema De Lux complex in Westfield opens up across the way
A roll call of pictures we’ve seen here would include Zoolander, Seabiscuit, Anchorman, Master and Commander, Big Fish, Bourne Identity, Inside Man, Quiet American, Changeling, The Express, Open Range, Casino Royale, Bruce Almighty, Monster’s Ball, Minority Report, Devil Wears Prada, Capote, Kinsey, Good Night and Good Luck, The Simpsons (interrupted by an alert), American Splendor, The Wrestler, Oceans’s 11, Catch Me If You Can, Lost in Translation, Volver, Hollywoodland (a London Film Festival Surprise Film showing), Flags of Our Fathers, Far from Heaven, Chicago, About Schmidt, In the Bedroom, Sideways, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, The Walker and probably several more
Add to that a really good long marquee that looked great lit up
I’m now repeating myself but that’s Hollywood for you…this was a really cool theatre probably 10 years behind the times for its own good…Opened at a time when road shows were a thing of the past and where there relatively few big pictures to fill it at 1400 seats…by the time this had opened the State was already a sizeable twin, the Ziegfeld was closing intermittently, the Penthouse/Cinerama was showing dross from American International and the Astor Plaza was the really big showcase theatre on Broadway…so basically it was Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno and downhill from there
A shame because the escalator ride was fun, the ticketing with cashier style tickets rather than hard tickets a novelty, and because it was just big…in many ways it could have been as a single as good an experience as the Astor Plaza (and I saw Jaws at the Rivoli, and Star Wars at the Astor Plaza opening weekend) and as a twin not bad at all if it had been part of a better circuit
The oddest most unsatisfactory of several DC theatres I experienced in the mid 90s…Managed to survive Hoop Dreams, Dead Man Walking and American Buffalo in Number 3, Fargo, The Postman and La Haine in Number 1 but you have to wonder how they got away with it not that the Foundry or Dupont were much better…on the other hand they didnt have a pillar in the middle
Actually saw Blue Collar here in 1979…Brussels pre Kineopolis had many more downtown cinemas and even though this felt like a ghost town at night it showed some offbeat less commercial fare…
Oh and the movie of Richard Nader’s rock and roll revival shows Let the Good Times Roll with Chuck Berry and Bill Haley and the Comets with decent sound in the early 70s when they were booking Columbia Showcase product
Another one of my growing up at the movies landmarks…Vivid memories of the Tower East with Fantasia, Yellow Submarine, a couple of dire MGM Showcase runs of Doris Day in Caprice and Tony Curtis in Dont Make Waves, then some real landmarks – Love Story, The Godfather first show opening Saturday weekend, Deliverance, The Great Gatsby (my Dad who wasn’t cheap making faces at the $4.50 ticket price) and actually a better picture in retrospect, The Stepford Wives, All the President’s Men, Mississippi Burning
The programming has always been a mix of arthouse and mainstream showcase and I could never in my mind imagine how they could twin it effectively…in many ways it is lucky it’s in a condo in the basement rather than above ground…one of the reasons for its survival vs say the Beekman…The Upper East Side’s silk stocking needs a theatre like this which can day date effectively with Broadway or the Upper West Side or even the Ziegfeld…what strikes me now is how long pictures stay there…Monster’s Ball was there for nearly 6 months a few years ago…in that way its not unlike the Paris
This is still a great place to see an “event” movie whether on the full screen or “grand large” with the screen dropping down onto the proscenium. When the lights are finally dimmed, you can still make out some of the features of the balconies and are really transported somewhere. Saw Miami Vice and Apocalypto there and the experience was not dissimilar to seeing a great action or blaxploitation picture in the 70s or 80s in say the Criterion or Rivoli. No the neighborhood isn’t one of Paris' best but it is still Paris.
Regret having missed Neil Young live there but bless the French for landmarking it