Instead of beating a dead horse, I shall offer a new observation.
People in Baltimore are adjusting to the new heirarchy of film exhibtion in Baltimore, for good or for bad.
All you have to do is wait and you can see your movie where you would prefer to see it, perhaps at a place that is cheaper, where you can find parking. It is a gamble, but it seems to be an emerging trend.
The Band's Visit? Played at both the Charles and the Landmark.
Iron Man? Played at both the Senator and the Charles.
The Visitor has managed to play all three local theaters, and is still going strong, perhaps due in part to an article that commented upon how strong it is going.
I just hope that my opportunity to see films like Mister Lonely (reviewed in the City Paper under the mistaken impression it was opening Friday. June 6th at the Landmark Harbor East) on the big screen in Baltimore is not taken away. Will more screens lead to less films?
Monday, June 9, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Fims Viewed (April-May 2008)
(April)
The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Manufactured Landscapes
The Counterfeiters
Smart People
Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood
Rear Window
The Grand
The Trouble with Harry
Planet B-boy
The Perverts Guide to Cinema (part one)
Key
The Charles
The Senator/ The Rotunda
The Landmark
Other (BMA, DVD, On Demand, Suburban Multiplex)
Total: 10 (7 in theaters)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(May)
Veronika Voss
Story of Women
Medicine for Melancholy
Chop Shop
89 Gator Mine
Goliath
Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story
Iron Man
My Brother is an Only Child
The Last Sunset
Young at Heart
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
My Kid Could Paint That
Key
The Charles
The Senator/The Rotunda
The Landmark
The Maryland Film Festival
Other (BMA, DVD, On Demand, Suburban Multiplex
Total: 12 features, 1 short (11 in theaters)
Notes: It is good to see both of the recent BMA free screenings coming up at the top of each month. I look forward to this Thursday's screening of Hal Ashby's The Landlord, the film he made before Harold and Maude. That's this Thursday, June 5th at 8PM for free at the BMA.
The most enjoyable few days of the past two months of my movie-going life is thanks to the 10th Annual Maryland Film Festival, which unspooled about a month ago. Although the dust is settled, many great films should be discussed, as they are still making the rounds and should be caught if possible.
Jon Waters has yet to disappoint me with his Friday night screening. I have been to eight of the last nine, and have enjoyed each. His choice of Story of Women was more proof of the length and breadth of quality films still waiting to be discovered out there, and I thank him for choosing it, as I doubt it would have crossed my path otherwise.
Films like Medicine for Melancholy are why I make time for the festival each year. Making an engaging polemic on the topic(s) of gentrification, racial identity, and modern post-everything relational malaise is not easy, and this film pulls it off. There are more stories to be told and new ways to tell these stories, and this film proves it, managing to nod to the past while keeping its sights set on the horizon. I hope that the film makes it out of the festival circuit with a means to be seen by the larger audience that it so richly deserves.
Chop Shop, another excellent film that I wrote about earlier, did get a "one week wonder" bow at the Charles. I had hopes it would make it further, but like Killer of Sheep before it, it did not stick around. I would say to consider it when it hits DVD.
Goliath, a film by the Zellner brothers, was preceded by a short film by Josh Slates, 89 Gator Mine. I have not had the opportunity to see the Zellner brothers other works, but this film made for an auspicious debut in feature filmmaking, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next. I was not as fired up about the film as others were, and I think I was a bit unhappy with some tonal inconsistencies that accumulated as the film progressed.
Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story was a fun and interesting look back at a lost era (my mother's favorite "scary movie" of all time is Castle's House on Haunted Hill). It did play like a "DVD extra" on steroids, but that was not necessarily displeasing. Perhaps the next generation of great documentarians will emerge from the "added bonus features" DVD salt mines.
It is also important to note that in the conversations following the festival, many people I talked to saw an entirely different group of films and were very happy with what they saw. This is a sign of the diversity and quality of films MFF brought to the festival this year. On to next year!
I "On Demanded" The Last Sunset after reading an article about it in Film Comment and can see the argument for adding it to the "Great Melodramas" cannon. I can also see why some of the key players disavowed the film so loudly.
Otherwise, the last two months have been filled with the first shots in the Summer film season, the new standard fare at the Charles, and one odious, terrible misfire. Please let me know if you would like more on any of the films listed. I should be writing on Film Distribution in General over the course of these two months shortly.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Chop Shop now playing at the Charles
I saw Chop Shop during the Maryland Film Festival and was very impressed by it. The film is a tough, unsenitmental look at two young people scrapping and hustling, trying to survive in the midst of an industrial hell. Shades of the best work of Di Sicca and Kiarostami are present but not overt. The film is playing now at the Charles, and I would say to check it out if you have the time and opportunity.
In the past, I would have assumed that Chop Shop is closing this Thursday, but it may continue on for a week or two, considering the local screening situation.
Apologies for my recent silence. I owe two months of "films viewed" and "film distribution in general" (I will combine them, I think) and a report from the always glorious Maryland film festival. I will make amends soon.
In the past, I would have assumed that Chop Shop is closing this Thursday, but it may continue on for a week or two, considering the local screening situation.
Apologies for my recent silence. I owe two months of "films viewed" and "film distribution in general" (I will combine them, I think) and a report from the always glorious Maryland film festival. I will make amends soon.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tenth Annual Maryland Film Festival
The Tenth Annual Maryland Film Festival is just around the corner (May 1st through the 4th), and I planned to post a list of the fllms I wanted to see, based on their write-ups and a preview night I attended. I am gratified to see that Eric Allan Hatch's list is very close to mine, so I direct you there to get a "head's up" on some of the more interesting offerings (with Youtube clips).
It is often a bit of a problem to get a handle in advance on what is playing at the fest, and I feel that efforts this year to get information out have been much stronger. Attendees will walk into the merry melee of that block with a much clearer idea this year of what they would like to see, and that is a good thing.
It is often a bit of a problem to get a handle in advance on what is playing at the fest, and I feel that efforts this year to get information out have been much stronger. Attendees will walk into the merry melee of that block with a much clearer idea this year of what they would like to see, and that is a good thing.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Schedule Changes at the Charles
As of this Monday, the Charles has cut its first matinée screenings (the two o'clock round) from its weekday schedule. Weekend screenings should remain the same. The website currently implies that the two o'clock round will be cut from Saturdays and Sundays as well, but this is incorrect.
I know from experience that those were the least attended screenings of the week, and also that the theater has considered cutting them out before. It is certainly sad news for employees who worked those AM weekday shifts. I would say it is sad news for theater patrons, but outside of that handful of confused pensioners who will be staring into the lobby this week, waiting for a screening that no longer occurs, I don't foresee too much turmoil or lost business.
Still, I worked many a bustling weekday matinée in the summer there, and I am assuming the Charles has accepted the reality that there is no March of the Penguins surprise summer box office on the horizon.
It is hard not to let out a wistful sigh and wonder what's next for film exhibition in Baltimore. I do know what's up next for this blog: some thoughts on the Maryland Film Festival, which is a scant two weeks away.
I know from experience that those were the least attended screenings of the week, and also that the theater has considered cutting them out before. It is certainly sad news for employees who worked those AM weekday shifts. I would say it is sad news for theater patrons, but outside of that handful of confused pensioners who will be staring into the lobby this week, waiting for a screening that no longer occurs, I don't foresee too much turmoil or lost business.
Still, I worked many a bustling weekday matinée in the summer there, and I am assuming the Charles has accepted the reality that there is no March of the Penguins surprise summer box office on the horizon.
It is hard not to let out a wistful sigh and wonder what's next for film exhibition in Baltimore. I do know what's up next for this blog: some thoughts on the Maryland Film Festival, which is a scant two weeks away.
Monday, April 7, 2008
A Tale of Two Pettigrews
ITEM
Do my eyes deceive me, or is Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day playing at both the Rotunda and the Charles?
I have been watching this since Friday, online and in the paper, and it does not seem to be a mistake.
If one were to peruse the Senator's website, the friendly link to the Charles is intact, as well as a mention of the current Dial M for Murder 3-D revival screenings (is this the third or the fourth time the Charles has shown the film in this way? I have lost count).
Could the war be over? Or does this simply reflect that when the Landmark does not show a film, the Charles is allowed to do so? I would appreciate insight from anyone who can explain in more depth this vagary of the recent film exhibition landscape.
In any case, let us all pray for peace in this ongoing conflict.
Do my eyes deceive me, or is Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day playing at both the Rotunda and the Charles?
I have been watching this since Friday, online and in the paper, and it does not seem to be a mistake.
If one were to peruse the Senator's website, the friendly link to the Charles is intact, as well as a mention of the current Dial M for Murder 3-D revival screenings (is this the third or the fourth time the Charles has shown the film in this way? I have lost count).
Could the war be over? Or does this simply reflect that when the Landmark does not show a film, the Charles is allowed to do so? I would appreciate insight from anyone who can explain in more depth this vagary of the recent film exhibition landscape.
In any case, let us all pray for peace in this ongoing conflict.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Film Exbition in Baltimore in General- March 2008
I found myself this month trying to adjust to the disorienting new rhythm of film exhibiton in Baltimore. There is a much more frenzied aspect to it, with hair-pin turns and sudden stops and starts now the norm. There is also a new screening hierarchy emerging that must be noted.
Certainly I have seen this time of year look something like this before. Having been through more than one "film drought" between Oscar season and the Maryland Film Festival, I know the signs and portents. Strange things have been showing on local screens, films that at other times of the year would not have had a shot at playing Baltimore. It is also true that these days we are drawing more water from the well, and some of what we are drawing is getting pretty shallow.
Extended metaphors aside, there is a new counter-phenomenon hitting area screens: the film that will not die. I cite the case of Atonement, a film I rushed out to see before the end of 2007, assuming that the area run would be brief. Boy, was I wrong. Atonement, a flim that won no major Oscars (apologies to all you "original score" lovers), managed to play at every film house in the city between December and March, even playing past the "DVD barrier," or very close to it. I enjoyed the film, had read the book, but dearly wished for the film to make way for some fresh experience.
Of course, I speak of the "DVD barrier" as if it still exists. For a time, Baltimore movie houses (especially the Charles) seemed to follow this system, not showing a film if the release date for the theater fell past DVD. I cannot count the number of times I saw the clever trailer for Another Gay Movie, a film that did not play at the Charles, perhaps due to a rushed-forward DVD release date. The old "rules" seem to be eroding, however.
Upon contemplation, the situation is a bit paradoxical, with some films playing for what seems like six months (see No Country for Old Men), while others play for six days. Typically, a big film is out on DVD the week it closes locally. Others are already available to rent when they play. The old window has collapsed, and this adds a new complication to Friday night's film choice.
If one were to describe the new heirachy that is emerging, it might be this: Landmark does what it wants, the Senator does what it wants, and the Charles takes what it can get. If the Senator does not have the number one movie in the country and wants it, it just adds it. The Landmark looks at the entire broad world of film, and cherry picks the ones that fit the program. The Charles waits and gets a few scraps from the table. The Charles has recently exhibited films that are castoffs from the other two at a point when the revenue potential/ interest has decreased greatly. Still, from a filmgoer's perspective, this means that if one just waits, maybe it can be seen down the street. Patience is a virtue, right?
Certainly I have seen this time of year look something like this before. Having been through more than one "film drought" between Oscar season and the Maryland Film Festival, I know the signs and portents. Strange things have been showing on local screens, films that at other times of the year would not have had a shot at playing Baltimore. It is also true that these days we are drawing more water from the well, and some of what we are drawing is getting pretty shallow.
Extended metaphors aside, there is a new counter-phenomenon hitting area screens: the film that will not die. I cite the case of Atonement, a film I rushed out to see before the end of 2007, assuming that the area run would be brief. Boy, was I wrong. Atonement, a flim that won no major Oscars (apologies to all you "original score" lovers), managed to play at every film house in the city between December and March, even playing past the "DVD barrier," or very close to it. I enjoyed the film, had read the book, but dearly wished for the film to make way for some fresh experience.
Of course, I speak of the "DVD barrier" as if it still exists. For a time, Baltimore movie houses (especially the Charles) seemed to follow this system, not showing a film if the release date for the theater fell past DVD. I cannot count the number of times I saw the clever trailer for Another Gay Movie, a film that did not play at the Charles, perhaps due to a rushed-forward DVD release date. The old "rules" seem to be eroding, however.
Upon contemplation, the situation is a bit paradoxical, with some films playing for what seems like six months (see No Country for Old Men), while others play for six days. Typically, a big film is out on DVD the week it closes locally. Others are already available to rent when they play. The old window has collapsed, and this adds a new complication to Friday night's film choice.
If one were to describe the new heirachy that is emerging, it might be this: Landmark does what it wants, the Senator does what it wants, and the Charles takes what it can get. If the Senator does not have the number one movie in the country and wants it, it just adds it. The Landmark looks at the entire broad world of film, and cherry picks the ones that fit the program. The Charles waits and gets a few scraps from the table. The Charles has recently exhibited films that are castoffs from the other two at a point when the revenue potential/ interest has decreased greatly. Still, from a filmgoer's perspective, this means that if one just waits, maybe it can be seen down the street. Patience is a virtue, right?
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