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| Subject: Art Houses | |
Author: Conrad | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 13:03:24 02/10/08 Sun For some reason I was thinking about the specialty theaters that used to be called "Art Houses" in the old days. These were small theaters that you only found in the major cities, that catered strictly to the "artistic" crowd. In other words, they showed movies outside the Hollywood mainstream. When I was growing up, that translated as foreign films with subtitles, (like the works of Fellini and Bergman) though occasionally an exceptional British film might be included. This was just about the only way people here in the USA got to see such movies, as they were never shown on TV. (Foreign films tended to be sexier and more frank in dealing with human attitudes than American films.) I don't think films like "The Seven Samurai" would ever have been seen by the American public if not for Art Houses. The concession stands were also different in the Art Houses of old. Instead of popcorn and candy they served steaming hot coffee instead. The ironic thing about all this was that mainstream movie directors attended Art Houses on a regular basis and gradually worked more and more foreign attitudes into their own films. Sometimes they even remade some foreign films for American audiences (Best example being "The Magnificent Seven," which was a remake of "Seven Samurai.") With more American movies featuring mature content, and the rise of the cable TV/video age, Art Houses started to change. Today, they either feature revivals of classic films, either foreign or domestic, or they cater to independently made American films (or "indies" as I think they're called). Recently, the original Japanese version of "Godzilla" had a successful run almost exclusively through art houses. And let's not forget "The Blair Witch Project," which started out in Art Houses then branched out to the mainstream. (When I first saw that film in the only Art House in the area, the tiny theater wasn't prepared for the overflow crowds, something they weren't accustomed to.) So where once the Art Houses were considered a "snob thing" they're now mainstreamed in their own way. Anybody got any Art House stories of their own to tell? [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> Subject: We had the York Square Cinema in New Haven...can't believe they tore it down; I suppose it was losing money, with all the multi-plexes around. That is where I first saw A Clockwork Orange, and that odd one, Crumb! Wow, if ever there was a disfunctional family...and yet, I had to keep watching! Saw some romantic ones there, but I can't recall which ones. There really is no place to see art or foreign films around here, anymore (that I know of) | |
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Author: Judith [Edit] |
Date Posted: 22:41:50 02/13/08 Wed [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> Subject: PS...the decor was so fine and old...I almost felt I was trespassing on another time. They man all dressed up to greet you...very cool, and we knew when there, that we were visiting a world that was just a ghost of it's former glory days, and would not exist much longer.. | |
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Author: J [Edit] |
Date Posted: 22:44:58 02/13/08 Wed [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> Subject: typo, hehe... | |
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Author: J [Edit] |
Date Posted: 22:47:12 02/13/08 Wed [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
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