While doing some online research for work today, I ran across a headline that made me first misty eyed and then frankly cynical. The Neptune Theater in Seattle is about to show its last film. This institution of the U-District is one of an increasingly diminishing number of single screen movie theaters in the country. While in grad school, I actively chose this theater above all the many mega-theaters in the city because of its character and nostalgic beauty. As the name implies, the decor has a heavy nautical influence combined with the obvious Greco-Roman influences. It has a great balcony where you can prop up your feet and enjoy the show. The marquee is lovely and the proprietors were terribly clever with the ways that they promoted the films being shown, as demonstrated in the photo above. I haven't lived in Seattle for 10 years but the Neptune remains one of my favorite memories. I saw the original Star Wars series on the big screen here for the second time around in 1997. My only good impression of the Blair Witch Project was the great sound system in the theater that helped set the atmosphere for a film that ended up being appallingly bad by playing loads of creepy "woodlands at night" noises before the film began. An era is ending on the corner of N. 45th Street in the Emerald City!
I think it is a terrible cultural loss that so many of us now flock to see our films at the local cineplex with 25 screens going at once. True, they have more in the way of amenities: snack bars that actually serve meals, IMAX, 3-D cinema, digital picture and sound, and the ability for everyone in the group to conceivably go to a different movie all at the same time. I have enjoyed these benefits on numerous occasions. There was a multi-screen theater just up the street from the Neptune that often caught my eye and my wallet because they had a great 24-hour Italian restaurant, Stella's Trattoria, attached to it. It's hard to pass up a combination like that if you hit the theater during the dinner hour. At the same time, I remember what it was like going to the movies as a child. Growing up in a small Southern town, the single screen theater was truly the only option but going to the movies was also an Event. You would wait eagerly each week to see what film was playing. Again, since you had one screen as opposed to 25, you often had to wait to see that film you really, really wanted to see for a number of weeks. Also, you had to hit the theater on the right weekend or you might lose out if the film was not held over beyond the initial weekend of release. The theater I loved then was the Strand in Waynesville, NC. It is also gone now, converted into a real estate office for the bottom feeders of Florida that come to summer in the "quaint little hamlet" of Waynesville. I remember walking under the brightly lit marquee up to the ticket window with my parents. With your freshly purchased ticket in hand, you were welcomed into the dimly lit interior. You had to walk a short hallway to the actual theater, a hallway lined with track lighting and that other forgotten art form of the cinema, the promotional poster. They have them at the modern cineplex but you don't see anyone really stopping to study them in anticipation of when "that one" was coming to your town. The smell of popcorn flooded the entire building and immediately put you in the mood for watching a movie. Finally, you ended up in the inner sanctum, complete with the folding seats and a huge screen that was often fronted by something that looked like a actual stage in a live theater. That stage was used for many years by the community theater company after the demise of the Strand before the real estate vampires moved in. You would sit there in the dimly lit room, awaiting the previews and opening credits. The architecture and design were actually interesting and you had the time to study all the details. Suddenly, the lights would dim to black and the screen would light up...and you would be taken away for a couple of hours. That experience is still the reason that I can't stop watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, one of my earliest memories of that theater. I won't say the decline of the single screen theater is solely responsible for Ben Affleck receiving an Oscar for screenwriting....but I might say it played a small part. Lack of creativity in film making has a habit of generating a lack of decent films worth the cost of seeing them on the big screen.
These days, going to films is often about as momentous an occasion as going to the grocery store. Everyone is in such a hurry that they don't stop to take in the atmosphere of the experience. Families may arrive together but very often end up in completely different theaters, devoid of one another's company. Gone is that sense of anticipation to see if "your film" was playing tonight. Of course it is, along with 6 other features and you can likely see "your film" on at least 2 or 3 screens. Don't get me wrong. I do understand. Netflix and Red Box are convenient and cheap. Going to the movies is now $9 a person rather than $9 for you and your parents and popcorn. Box office sales are not what they used to be and very often the owners simply can't afford to bring in the films, keep the theater open, and maintain the facility. This is especially true when they are competing with the giant mega theater down the street. I would, however, encourage anyone reading this to take the opportunity if you get the chance and go to a single screen movie house and take in the full experience of going to the movies before they are all gone. If you love film at all, it is an experience you won't soon forget. Just like buying your food locally, if enough people would slow down and take those opportunities, we would not be losing so many of these lovely cultural cathedrals. It may be too late for my beloved Neptune since I'm 3,000 miles away but it isn't too late for the Rockingham Theater just down the street.
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