Cinema Village
22 E. 12th Street,
New York,
NY
10003
22 E. 12th Street,
New York,
NY
10003
31 people
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Some recent pics
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Christmas of 1968
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Irv,
More about the history of Cinema Village’s Third Avenue outpoust here:
/theaters/8371/
Some great double features there in the heyday. Down by Law and She’s Gotta Have It on one bill. Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqatsi, so packed we had to sit on the stairs. A Face in the Crowd and Sterile Cuckoo. Used to love those double-faced flyers with all the upcoming double features.
Celluloid Freak-
This blog is partially about the old days of CV when it was a single screen theater, if you missed the boat on that too bad. Believe it or not, it was cooler than anything that we might find ‘state-of-the-art’ these days. And speaking of art, what does your criticism have to do with that anyway? Sounds like your more interested in hotel accomodations not movie-going. Whining about, of all things, stadium seating? You must be joking, right?
Maybe a little spoiled and born in the 80s are we..hmmm?
I really don’t understand you guys getting all gushy about this lousy theatre. The only reason I attend this place is because I’m able to watch films there for free. Otherwise I’d stay away! Sorry but the projection is horrible in the two small theatres and NO STEREO SOUND! Big time keystoneing in the attic auditorium. Cloudy picture in the basement. No stadium seating on the main theatre. It’s time someone build another state-of-the-art indie theatre. PLEASE!!!
Hey Hardbop-
You’re right. CV was on Third Ave. briefly, but I think it was in the early 90s. I never ended up going there when it was in that location, but I did sail by there the other day and was reminded that it existed there for a short time. I can’t remember what’s there now, if anything in fact is there at all. It’s close to that bar called Bar None, which was also known as The Space At Chase back in the day. I wondering though, was this always a theater even before CV had relocated there?
Ah yes.. ‘Don’t Look Now’. That’s a good one. I think I saw that at the Thalia Soho way back. If you want to see another great Julie Christie/Nic Roeg collaboration check out ‘Petulia’ if you haven’t yet. It’s actually directed by Richard Lester, but a strong presence from Roeg as DP, and he DPs the hell out of it. Amazing compositions and camera work all around. I saw it for the first time almost 20 years ago, and I think I can still say that it’s probably my all-time fave film.
While I’m glad that Cinema Village is still functioning I really do miss, and have missed for years, their revival program. From around ‘86 until they ended the revivals, I was there all the time. I had so many great movie-going experiences there, and it wasn’t always about the movie itself. The place had a real moody feel, and it was so cool to go there when there was a relatively small crowd that always included some real existential freaks. I loved it. The first double bill I saw there was 'Atomic Cafe’ and a really weird Czech film called ‘WR: Mysteries of the Organism". My mind was blown to smithereeens it was so cool.
Among other films I also remember seeing there were Nic Roeg’s director’s cut of ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth" with David Bowie. So amazing. I also saw '2001: A Space Odyssey’ there and a rat ran up the center aisle while the movie was going. Nobody screamed. I saw a really bad David Niven film called ‘King, Queen, Nave". It was so bad, but I didn’t care, I was at Cinema Village in that weird environment. I also remember seeing a double bill of Fellini’s “Juliet of the Spirits’ & "Satyricon”. It was like I spent a whole day in the place.
Since CV is now split into 3 theaters, I think they should consider bringing back film revival in at least one of the theaters. It would be great if the revival program was ongoing, but if they did it once or a few times a month it would be a welcome addition to what they are doing now.
One other question regarding Cinema Village. Back in the 1980s, for a brief period (probably months) didn’t CV run an offshoot theatre on Third Avenue around 11th or 12th Streets? It was on the west side of the street, just above where the Loew’s Multi-plex now stands. I remember seeing Nick Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now” there. It wasn’t open long and then I think became some sort of pornographic house and now is something else.
I’ve been a regular patron of the Cinema Village since I moved to NYC in ‘82. I do remember that mix of first run and revivals in the 80s. I remember seeing “Das Boot” there for the first time and after the film felt like I’d been in the sub for two hours. I remember sitting through the very weird “Cop Killer,” which starred Harvey Keitel and Johnny Rotton from the Sex Pistols.
In fact, I’ll be there tonight for the last showing of “16 Years of Alcohol” before it heads off to videoland.
I worked at Cinema Village at the time that photograph was taken (I may even be one of the silhouettes in the doorway), and I worked there for a good five months or more. I have somewhat of a sentimental attachment to the place, I guess, and I return to it every time I visit NYC.
I saw a film at Cinema Village the very night I moved to NYC. ‘Himalaya,’ one I’d wanted to see but which had not opened in my previous home of South FL. I went back a day later to see ‘Thomas in Love,’ and then a day or so later to see ‘The River.’ Cinema Village is independently programmed and it shows. Programmed by the founder of Empire Pictures, the features are hand-picked and the programming deliciously quirky in a way that the programming at the Angelika and the CC Village East is not. The lobby is unpretentious, too, unlike that for the Quad. So, you get the best of both worlds and cozy comfort to boot, the kind of comfort that’s hard to come by in Manhattan.
There’s a large 170-seat theater, and two smaller theaters, the “attic” and the “basement” houses, respectively seating 67 and 73 people. The desired location is the 170-theater, of course, which features remarkably crisp and powerful Dolby Digital sound. The other theater houses, though, are cozy enough, and the lobby — while tiny — is the right size to be completely hijacked by the smell and sound of popping popcorn. Purchasing a bag will be hard to resist.
Cinema Village was the only theater in the country, I believe, to show ‘Ginger Snaps,’ and plays a lot of other stuff exclusively, making it a singular venue. Employees are well-chosen, too (I speak from a not entirely objective position!), while the same cannot be said for the City Cinemas venues or even the Quad.
I attended repertory screenings at Cinema Village throughout the seventies. Although it had a relatively small screen compared to the Elgin Cinema and Regency, they did play some great titles.
The biggest surprise was a showing of “The Wild Bunch”. The Pekinpah classic had played most of the revival cinemas in the standard cut 135 minute version. Then to my surprise and un-announced, Cinema Village played an uncut 2 hour and 25 minute version with all of the missing flashbacks. I had heard about the deleted scenes but it was the first time I’d seen them. The print was mint in Technicolor, possibly a studio vault print that the theater was unaware they were getting. Anyway, it was a great show. It’s always a thrill to see ‘lost’ footage (for the era anyway) for the first time.
From the Cinema Village web site:
Build in 1963 in the shell of a turn of the century fire station, Cinema Village is the oldest continuously operated cinema in Greenwich Village and one of the oldest continuously operated art cinemas in the city.
Through most of it’s first three decades of life Cinema Village was one of Manhattan’s several repertory cinemas. Showcasing a canon of vintage classics, cult and contemporary critical favorites on double bills that would usually change three times a week, this once essential programming format has now largely died out in commercial cinemas in the city and around the country. Before the video revolution, short of a private film collection, going to a repertory cinema was virtually the only way to see many films after their initial theatrical run. Rep houses like Cinema Village, the recently re-opened Thalia and the now long closed Bleeker Street, Carnegie Hall, 8th Street Playhouse and Regency were the autodidacts' film school and favorite haunts of cineastes for decades.
Undermined by home video, buy outs by major circuits and real estate development, commercial repertory cinema virtually disappeared in the city by the late 1980’s. Cinema Village only escaped closing and survived with a switch to limited engagements of highly alternative first run programming.
This resulted in an eclectic mix of slip through-the-cracks American indie sleepers (Red Rock West), the occasional revival (In the Realm of the Senses, Two Lane Blacktop, The Leopard), documentaries (Theremin, Waco: Rules of Engagement, Kurt & Courtney), festivals, animation compilations, Japanese cult cinema (Tokyo Decadence, Angel Dust, Ghost in the Shell) and heavy doses of Hong Kong cinema.
In the early nineties before Jackie Chan, John Woo, Michele Yeoh and their stunt coordinators went Hollywood, Cinema Village became known, through its annual festivals and other bookings, as the place to see the amazing Hong Kong films of what would soon to acknowledged as a filmmaking golden age. For filmgoers who never ventured to Chinatown or had only seen blurry bootleg videos, these films were a revelation and they would soon have a profound influence on international filmmaking styles. During this period we also had the privilege of playing host to personal appearances by talents such as Michele Yeoh, Chow Yun Fat, Wong Kar Wai and Peter Chan.
In 2000 our patron’s support was rewarded with a long deferred renovation and expansion of screens. When we reopened, we had transformed ourselves into a thoroughly modern three screen facility with state of the presentation. Our additional screens allow an even more diverse programming mix and permit us to extend runs of special films to extraordinary lengths (Mulholland Drive: 18 weeks; Yi Yi: 21 weeks; The Piano Teacher: 28 weeks).
In 2001 we quietly introduced digital video projection capabilities to accommodate the increasing reliance on digital video by independent productions. This now gives us the potential to play deserving features without the burden to distributors or filmmakers of an expensive conversion to celluloid.
Nearing its fourth decade, Cinema Village is proud of its longevity and thankful to have survived the pitfalls that have taken down so many other independent cinemas. Notwithstanding our resourcefulness, our ability to survive is testimony entirely to the New York City audience. We could probably only exist where we are: in the midst of most diverse, cosmopolitan and cine-aware of cities.
Auditoriums
Screen #1
capacity: 170 seats
projection: 35 mm, 16 mm, digital video
sound: Dolby Digital CP500
Screen #2
capacity: 67 seats
projection: 35 mm, 16 mm, digital video
sound: Dolby Surround CP45
Screen #3
capacity: 73 seats
projection: 35 mm
sound: Dolby Surround CP45
I left the business in 1995 but have stayed connected through alot of friends I made in the business over the years. I ran the Cinema Village on and off for a few months at a time over the years. I was mainly operating the theatres we used to have in Queens. I did also run the DW Griffith and the Columbia also.
Robert,
You sure sound like you were very proud of the Theatre. Before videos your theatre was the only place I knew in NYC that played a lot of the movies I liked. Technology is great, but I sure miss all of the old theatres. I grew up in Philadelphia and remember other theaters on this website I used to go as a kid, Alden and Cambria. I now live outside of Baltimore MD. Did you stay in NYC and the movie business?
Thanks Tony
Remember also in the lobby we had the podium where you could write film reqests? The downstairs which is now a theatre was where the candy stand was and all the little tables and chairs.
Robert,
You guys ran a great theatre. I remember the waiting in small lobby before the auidence left. Nice looking bunch of people used to go to this theatre. I used to get off at the Christopher street station and walk to the Threatre. On 8th street there was a threatre that always had the Rocky Horror Picture show playing. Pick up a slice of Pizza at Ben’s.
Taxi Driver/Mean Streets was a revival staple here. We played it at least twice a year and it always filled the house.
I used to go to this theatre when I was stationed in New York in the late 1970s early 1980s. I was a big movie buff back then. They used to highlight directors and their movies. I saw Taxi Driver/Mean Streets one night and a couple of Terence Malick movies on another day. Boy, I have not been to NYC in 20 years. Heard that Times square is all cleaned up. I could tell you some stories about my young single days in NYC.
No, the Kew Gardens has a different owner.
i think they also own the kew garden cinemas,also in queens
The owner of the Cinema Village also owns the Cinemart Cinemas in Forest Hills.
Just saw the thoroughly traumatizing “Time of the Wolf” there a few days ago. Whew, it’s not exactly the feel-good movie of the year but it is high quality, and it reaches you and shakes you up badly, which is its intention. The theatre I saw it in was quite small with a smallish screen but that somehow felt kind of like a full-sized one in an odd way. I like this theatre and I’m quite glad it that it continues to be open. I’m making a point of returning to see “Bukowski” the day after tomorrow if they’re still running it.
Camden
In December of 1972 this theater programmed “The Genesis Children,” a controversial movie about nude boys frolicking on a European beach. I believe that the cinema was programmed for a time in the 1980s by the late Richard Schwartz, who had also programmed the Thalia (uptown) and Thalia Soho with frequently-changing repertory double bills.
This is where I saw Chow Yun Fat for the first time in film and in person. I saw “Hard Boiled” with “The Killer” in a double feature that changed my life and made me want to go into film. This theater was known to show many a Hong kong Retrospective before they went Art House 100%. I also saw Chow Yun Fat there when they gave one of his retrospectives there in 1996. I got his autograph and we spoke about his American Debut in “The Replacement Killers”. The last film I saw there was the controversial French Rape Film “Baise Moi” about two or three years ago.