Tonight, I went to the "Bijou Cinema" to see Gang War (1958), starring Charles Bronson (I don't think this film could be found many other places). The Bijou Cinema is actually this guy, Chris Perry's garage, and it is full of all sorts of film memorabilia and old projectors. Chris still projects 35mm prints and has the capability to project pretty much any type of film that you can come up with (by the end of 2013, "films" will no longer be released on film -- they will be distributed digitally, so all major theaters are switching over to the digital format, making this place a very special one). One of the coolest things about tonight was that former NPR film critic Randy Fischer (who now lives in Twentynine Palms) was there to introduce and discuss the film. This place is SO COOL.
This is the actual projector and 35mm print of Gang War (at least half the movie is on that reel -- I think he had to switch out the reels halfway through).
Some cool little projectors.
This is where the film was screened. There are movie theater seats in front of the screen but it was sort of dark and impossible to get a picture of them. Before the film and during intermission, Chris played old swing music and projected glass slides onto the screen, like the one pictured above.
NEAT!! how often does he screen stuff? what does he charge? and is there popcorn?
ReplyDeleteI think he tries to do it about once a month? The next film is screening in April. He charges $5, or if you can bring him a pre-1965 quarter, he'll take 25 cents. Because it's made with actual silver and it used to cost 25 cents to go to the movies. There apparently used to be popcorn -- he has a machine to make it, but I think that the turnout hasn't been so good lately, so he hasn't been making it.
Delete