Film Viewed (January 2009)

Last Year at Marienbad
Rachel Getting Married
Masculine Feminine
I've Loved You So Long
One or Two Things I Know about Her
Revolutionary Road
The Exiles
The Wrestler
Contempt
Frost/Nixon
Band of Outsiders

Key
The Charles
The Senator/ The Rotunda
The Landmark Harbor East
Other (Video Americain, Suburban Multiplex)
Total: 11 (all in theaters)

Notes: Firstly, It should be mentioned that the Senator is having a weekend where they will get down to the heart of the matter and have bands perform in a benefit to support the transition to a non-profit entity. Therefore, they will not screen any films this weekend. I would say it is best just to get used to this sort of thing.

It is increasingly clear that Baltimore-based lovers of film will have three less screens to choose from very shortly. Astrogirl gets it, but I am not so sure I do. Why would I want to throw good money after bad in supporting this endeavor?

The list this month is small but filled with films of quality. Certainly Oscar bait abounds, but in many cases the films would have been worth seeing in any case. I have this strange allergy to Oscar buzz and discussions of who should win and why. Forgive me if I decide not to pile on. If you would like to enter into this national conversation, may I suggest the following sentence starters: "Mickey Rourke's masterful performance...", "The film, despite being set in the past, has many parallels to today's political...," or "Will the Academy finally recognize ________ ________, whose contributions have for too long..." Have at it!

The revival series at the Charles has been especially enjoyable, moving in every which way for a time, screening powerful/seminal docs like the Exiles along with what appears to be the remnants of a French film series. The series has now stumbled into Godard, out of sequence and without a map. I can't think of a more appropriate way to delve into these films.

That about wraps it up for this past month. Up next, Film Exhibition in Baltimore. I will try to wait until the next headline hits regarding the fate of the Senator to update.

Film Exhibition in Baltimore (January 2009)

First of all, a petition to bring back the gone but not forgotten BMA film series has been started. I would say to go here and sign, if you have not done so already. The BMA is offering a free African film festival over two days. Go here for more.

So much has happened on other fronts it is hard to keep up. The Senator theater held a town hall meeting on December 18th, 2008, to announce it was in transition to be turned into a not-for-profit organization, ending any speculation regarding the cryptic messages the theater has been placing in the Sunpapers.

The meeting was all glad tidings and cheer on the part of the presenters. We were wowed with bg names like Tony Bennett, Kenny Rogers, and Wynona Judd. We were told that this was going to be our place, a community center and venue kept alive by dedicated volunteers. We were told that we would get to see out children dance on the stage of the Senator theater.

BUT this dream, in order to become a reality, was going to take a lot of time, effort, and, yes, donations. Sign up sheets for work teams were distributed. We were told to write down what we wanted the Senator to do on distributed index cards, and then to share it with the group. During the Q and A, and a Sun Reader Rewards group who had waiting long enough for their free screening of Marley and Me became an increasing presence, I decided to leave without speaking up.

Why? Well, they had no clear answers to any questions posted, just a lot of good intentions and big dreams to sell. And, I knew film at the Senator will soon be, essentially, a thing of the past.

I feel this way based on the orientation of the community in general and the current owner specifically. To them, an occasional screening of a DVD of The Wizard of Oz will be enough to keep film alive at the Senator. That is not enough for me.

I don't care about Tony Bennett. I care about adventurous film (projected from film stock). And, if the Senator starts a film society dedicated to regular screening of such fare, count me in. I can see blockbusters at the Landmark Harbor East. I can watch the Wizard of Oz at my mom's house over the holidays.

Could the Rotunda be a film venue for the place? Possibly, But I could also see the Rotunda being sold and turned into a Starbucks or a church.

In any case, since this meeting, a press conference was called at which it was announced that the Senator's efforts to transition has stalled, and that they needed cash yet again (as I mentioned in my previous post). Now, in the latest development, the city of Baltimore has offered to buy the debt of the Senator if the owner signs over the theater to a non-profit organization. In other words, the Senator has an opportunity to truly become the people's theater. Let's hope the owner can swallow his pride and give up on his quixotic mission. As John Lind, the CEO of Venuetech said, single screen single owner movie theaters "don't work." Even Lyndon B. Johnson couldn't keep one afloat.

A great resource on all of this is the new Google group "Friends of the Senator Theater." I may defer to them until all of this settles down and is sorted out.

In other developments, MICA cancelled the long running film series I was just championing. It is going forward with an unrelated French film series. The series is scheduled for mid-February and looks promising. I will update when there is more on the web about it.

The Charles has messed with many a patron's mind over the holidays, changing its screening schedule several times. During the holidays things were running full bore like in the good ol' days, then the nine o'clock round was cut Monday-Wednesday again, but the two o'clock round was kept. I would say the best thing to do is call, check the paper (as well as the website) before you go, making sure you are tuned in to that exact day when you look at the listings. The theater is still profiting from screeing Oscar contenders, but there is a long, hard winter ahead, so I imagine things will change up once more.

Well, that is about it. Apologies on the delay in posting. Forgive spelling and grammar. I will fix as time allows, as my laptop just went to that great computer graveyard in the sky. Things also got all inaugural and I got really busy. Up next, the films I viewed in January 2009. Until then...

Senator Press Conference Today

This morning, at 10:30 AM, a press conference will be held at the Senator. Entitled "The Senator Theater's Endangered Future" and billed as a "call to action," it appears to be a way for the Senator to make its transition to not-for-profit status more public and to play on the narrative ("Save our Senator") that got so much cash out of people's pockets before.

The economic downturn has clearly hit the Senator hard, as it has hit most local businesses. Since the Senator is already in debt up to its eyeballs, I imagine the loan is coming due soon, and that the creditors are ready to take over before the transition can occur (I thought it was already occurring, based on the town hall meeting, but oh well...).

The question is, will people be willing to throw their money once again at a problem that they were assured was "fixed" by their last donation? Fool me once...

Up next, a criminally overdue update on film exhibition in Baltimore.

Films Viewed (December 2008)

Role Models
Doubt
Please Vote for Me (excerpt)
Adaptation
Network
Ashes of Time- Redux
Lola Montes
A Christmas Tale
Raging Bull
Bombshell
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2012: Science or Superstition
Love in the Afternoon
Milk
The Reader
The Spirit
Baby Mama

Key
The Charles
The Senator/ The Rotunda
The Landmark Harbor East
Other (Tarantula Hill, Video Americain, MICA Brown Center, Suburban Multiplex)
Total: 16 features, 1 feature excerpt (13 in theaters)

Notes: This month offered a variety of screening experiences, from the mysteries of December 21st, 2012 on the west side to an otherwise unavailable Victor Fleming film in Falvey Hall. It is nice to have these added screening options in the city.

It is also clearly awards/top ten season, and the Oscar Bait is being trotted out all over town. Since these are films for which there is always provided a great deal of critical verbiage, I shall stay out if it for now.

Despite my strange ambivalence about lists, I overcame it enough to compose a "Top Ten Films I Saw in Theaters in Baltimore in 2008" list for The Mobtown Shank, to be published shortly. I shall quote myself from said list about some films of note from the past month:

"A brutal take on family dysfunction, A Christmas Tale is misleadingly titled. Two and half hours long and very French, the film somehow manages to paint a sympathetic portrait of a group of the some of the meanest and messiest people put on screen in recent memory. Still, the viewing experience was ultimately a rewarding one, akin to getting through a weighty and satisfying tome."

"Shall we call this one the anti-Marley and Me? The Reader is a complex and brutal take on Holocaust guilt, statutory rape, and all kinds of dark Germanic mess. Kate Winslet is brilliant in the film. I am a long-standing fan of hers, so she could read the phone book and I would probably watch, but the praise for her performance is not mine alone. The film offers no easy answers, leaving the viewer in a confused melancholy, stumbling out into a world that seems somehow bleaker. Any film with that kind of power is clearly worth noting."

Otherwise, my usual routine remained unbroken. Up next, a great deal to say about another round of seismic shifts in the film exhibition landscape in Baltimore.

Changes at the Senator

It was announced via town hall meeting last evening that the Senator theater as we know it is coming to an end. I will post a link to this article for now, and will update and revise as time warrants with my notes from the meeting as well as my thoughts on yet another seismic shift in the film exhibition landscape in Baltimore.

Film Exhibition in Baltimore (December 2008)

You will note that I have decided to change the month by which I track this post, as it tends to reflect the current moment as opposed to the past. There shall be no November 2008 post.

Three things on my mind, currently:

Topic One: Is the Landmark Harbor East homophobic?

There has been an interesting change in the pattern at the new theater in town, the Landmark Harbor East. Apparently, they will show any film that will maximize their profit share unless it deals with homosexuality (and the attendant and ongoing struggle for equal rights in that community) in a frank and open way.

Once you discount the fluke of the success of Slumdog Millionaire, which no movie suit predicted (it was apparently headed straight to DVD at one point), it makes no sense as to why Landmark would not be playing Milk. It is right up their alley in every way. It is another film for Mark Cuban to swipe from the Charles as he laughs and blow smoke from a cigar lit with a hundred dollar bill in the theater's face.

I am certainly not accusing the Landmark chain of being homophobic, as to look at their national exhibition picture shows several arthouses that are clearly gay friendly. So, my question is: was the decision not to play Milk based on having too many hits to handle already, or is there a policy of some kind in place at Landmark Harbor East?

It is certainly also possible that letting the Charles have Milk is based on its location near the heart of Baltimore's LGBT community. But something seems odd about the whole thing to me. I guess we shall see the next time a film like this comes down the pike. In any case, the film is having a successful run at the Charles, and this is a good thing for the theater.

Topic Two: Does the Arthouse have a future in Baltimore?

As discussed in a prior post, the Charles has cut the nine o'clock screenings on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from the schedule, prime time for college kids and those of the cineaste stripe among us to catch the films they want to see. This is outrageous to some, and another clear sign that the theater is catering to and getting more support from the greatest generation and the boomers than the youth of today.

It is extremely unfortunate that these screenings were cut, but financial concerns were involved. I wish that the next generation of film lovers were coming out to see these films in enough numbers to justify the screenings, but I know in my heart that the next generation of film lovers is moving away from the arthouse.

In conversations with young (and gen-x) lovers of film, it is clear that they get their movies on their laptops and Netflix most of the time, and do not understand the need to sit with a group of people in a darkened room and watch something projected on film more than a few times a year. Of course, I get a true and resonant enjoyment from this regular communal experience, but, to them, it is as antiquated a practice as reading a daily newspaper.

It is then only logical that a new paradigm is needed, as this is a business without a future. Perhaps the Senator's current move to non-profit status is an acknowledgment that the need now is for preservation as opposed to profit.

Topic Three: Why the heck are so many films opening on Christmas day?

I don't get it. How am I supposed to choose between The Spirit, Doubt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader, Valkyrie, and Frost/ Nixon, all scheduled to open in Baltimore on Christmas day? Outside of skipping out on my friends and family, I don't see options that allow me to take it all in over the holidays. Why is all this product is being dumped on this day into our market?

Of course, I must remember that some of these films will live on, being passed from theater to theater for months and months. Despite my warm memories of seeing the film back in August, I am beginning to think that Vicky Cristina Barcelona was about zombies, as it is clearly the film that will not die when it comes to Baltimore movie houses.

Films Viewed (November 2008)

Christmas in July
The Foot Fist Way
The Great Moment
I.O.U.S.A.
Quantum of Solace
Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight)
Happy-Go-Lucky
Let the Right One In
Joy Division
Trouble the Water
Rosemary's Baby
Badlands
Youth of the Beast
Synecdoche, New York
Slumdog Millionaire
Wu: The Story of the Wu-tang Clan
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Key
The Charles
The Senator/The Rotunda
The Landmark
Other (Enoch Pratt Free Library, Video Americain, Suburban Multiplex)
Total: 16 features (12 in theaters)

Notes: It is hard not to notice that I did not darken the doors of the Senator or the Landmark for the entire month. I guess I have a profound lack of interest in Christmas comedies and teenage vampires.

Pre-teen Swedish vampires, on the other hand, were well worth checking out. Let the Right One In was a surprising, disturbing, subversive good time even for someone who explores the horror genre sparingly. I guess when it comes to scary premises (and realities), I am more interested in films like I.O.U.S.A.

Two music documentaries, Joy Division and Wu: The Story of the Wu-tang Clan, both benefited from reams of interesting, rarely seen footage and a personal connection with the places from which the artists came. The latter, especially, as the filmmaker grew up in the "slums of Shaolin." Perhaps not just "for fans only", these two.

Synecdoche, New York was a head scratcher of the first order. Movies that push like this are why I still show up, and I thank the Charles for squeezing it in between screenings of Slumdog Millionaire and Milk (now playing on two screens).

Otherwise, it was revivals and Bond movies, starmaking turns and ugly realities. Not a bad time at the movies, all in all.

Up next, some commentary on film exhibition in general.