ghostlifeghostlife.

*please note new “feature” at the bottom of each post going forward, the “Twin Peaks Image of the Day”. I know, random. But nice, yeah?

A few years ago I was walking around my downtown neighborhood and for the first time realized a particular building on Washington St (between Water and State streets; see below) looked like it had some sort of marquee attached to it, one that really didn’t make sense as to why it was there at all.  Why did it take me so long to notice this? Maybe the sight of it became too familiar and thus I didn’t pay much attention to it.  But, being the smart guy that I am (ha), I put two and two together and realized that, along with the small brick tunnel under the marquee that still has cases lining it’s walls to display movie posters, this could have been a movie theater.  My sense was it wasn’t – WHY WOULD THERE BE A MOVIE THEATER HERE? – WHY WOULD THERE STILL BE REMNANTS THERE? – but after doing some searching online, I realized it was indeed a movie theater back in the day, called the Pi Alley, which apparently was around for a long time.  Here is a picture in it’s current form, still sporting a sign calling this now functionless building “Pi Alley”.

Pi Alley - 12 Pi Alley, Boston (Downtown)

This instantly made me sad, thinking of all the old 1, 2, and 3-screen cinemas that were scattered around the city (and the country for that matter) up until about 15 years ago, but have now been replaced with just a few of these multiplex theaters that have degraded the movie going experience in many ways.  Granted, for sure, theaters are better now – sound systems are incredible, stadium seating is comfortably ideal, etc. The care (most) filmmakers put into their craft are able to be displayed in the most modern up-to-date environments possible.  I am all for that.  What is still missing with the multiplexes however is the experience of going to different theaters – depending on the movie you were seeing.  For instance back in the day, when a new Woody Allen movie would be released here in Boston (which is once a year to this day I might add), you would go to the single screen Paris on Boylston St to see it as they premiered his films exclusively …

Paris - 841 Boylston St, Boston (Back Bay)

Or when A Clockwork Orange had it’s long Boston run, you had to haul over to the Cinema 57 downtown…

Cinema 57 - 200 Stuart St, Boston (Downtown/Chinatown)

Or when Star Wars was released, it had it’s exclusive run in 70mm at the biggest screen in Boston at the time, the Charles (next to MGH) …

Charles Cinema - 185 Cambridge St, Boston (West End/Beacon Hill)

Charles Cinema - 185 Cambridge St, Boston (West End/Beacon Hill)

Today no matter what movie you are going to see you basically have 2 theaters to choose from (the Boston Common & the Fenway).  Where’s the fun in that? No more cute and cozy twin cinemas to visit anymore.  We of course do still have the Coolidge, the Brattle, the Somerville Theater, which are all fantastic.  But when art-house theaters have also gone the way of the big chain multiplex (for example, Landmark Theaters, with their theater in Cambridge’s Kendall Square), the quaint factor is just gone.  My dream is that we still had all these lovely small theaters all over town, but those were updated and modernized to the standards of today.

So now two years later and I am finally finishing this entry, thanks to a good friend of mine who inspired me after sending me some lovely pictures of old theater marquees from the 70′s.  It made me go back and search around online, and in doing that found out that the downtown Cinema 57 has re-opened! Strangely, it’s been open over a year now, and still so little publicity that this cinephile had no idea.  I remember going there with my friend Maria just one time back before it closed, which unfortunately at the time was playing second run films and first run B-movies.  The charm of the theater to me was one; it was just the fact one of these old twin cinemas that was still around, and two; it’s location, tucked away in a hotel where you had to go through the lobby to get to the entrance. A little cinematic hideway for the nerds in all of us! Now for the amazing news – it’s back! It is now independently owned and operated as a single screen cinema under the name Stuart Street Playhouse, showing exclusively art-house films.

Cinema 57 - 200 Stuart St, Boston (Downtown/Chinatown)

I know having this theater making it’s return is more than I can ask for in this day and age, but at the same time hopefully it could mark the beginning of the return of these small churches of film and cinema into our cities and towns.  There’s nothing cinematically more exciting than to go to theaters that are owned and run by other passionate film obsessives, instead of these film factories that shovel such mass-market/churn ‘em out/maximize profits drivel like ‘Eat Pray Love’ and the next Tyler Perry fiasco.  Don’t let the ‘Cecil B. Demented’ cinematic terrorist side of me come out!

Below are a few pictures of some more victims of cinematic down-sizing here in Boston that should not and will not be forgotten …. at least by this sentimental fool!

Beacon Hill Theater - 1 Beacon St, Boston (Government Center/Beacon Hill)

Cheri - 50 Dalton St, Boston (Back Bay)

Janus - 57 JFK St, Cambridge (Harvard Square)

Other great honorable mentions:
Allston Cinemas – Boston
Copley Square Cinemas – Boston
Nickelodeon – Boston
Orson Welles Cinema – Cambridge

All photos courtesy of CinemaTour.  I recommend checking out that site, as well as CinemaTreasures, for a bit of nostalgia.

love ALLways,

Andrew W. Bush
43rd President of the United States of America
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TWINPEAKSIMAGEOFTHEDAY

Nevermind how trashy and fantastic this movie is, I just love this poster just because of how there is this 4 paragraph description on what the movie is about, when you can pretty much get the gist of it from the one word title …

I was really looking forward to this movie for the longest time (since I heard about it last month), and I have mixed FEELINGS after watching it with 3 strangers in a darkened room on a summer Monday evening. Ultimately the movie is not very good, and I think that’s mostly due to the first time writing/directing “skills” of Marc Forby. What was meant to be big and ambitious did end up being just that – but more suited for TV movie of the week on any of the major networks than on the silver screen. The pluses are lead actress Q’orianka Kilcher who is quite ravvvvishing throughout in her role as the Princess, and she did an decent job with the material that was handed to her. As well the setting was especially beautiful to see during the second half of the movie (although the cinematography wasn’t anything special). In the end what gives this movie PROPS is that it does need to be given credit for even attempting to tell this particular story of Hawai’i in the first place- or ANY story of Hawai’i's history really. Hawai’i has a long storied past even when it comes to just its political history over the past 130 years or so, but I guess it’s poetic in a way that it’s stories will continue to go unnoticed due to the quality of this movie – as hard as it tried to bring it to the rest of the world. Here’s hoping it will at least inspire a better production down the road some day. A+ for effort, C- for execution! Mahalo …

Was/am a big fan of ‘Friends with Money’, although never seen this director’s first few movies like ‘Walking & Talking’ (but apparently i have seen a few TV episodes of ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘Bored to Death’ that she has directed?). Oh her name is Ms Nicole Holofcener BTW. I will say right off the bat I was surprised and happy to see Howard Stern mentioned – adoringly I might add – not once, or twice, but THREE times during the course of the movie – even mentioning specific events from the show. Especially coming from a female writer/director and mostly female cast – in this and most of the work in her career – it was nice to see preconceptions pushed aside – at least a bit. So anyway, about the movie – its fantastic. Mostly a comedy – bordering on a “female Woody Allen” – as if thats a fair comment to him or her – but it had some of his trademark style all over it. Maybe it was just the living-comfortably-in-midtown-Manhattan “type” of people that are its core, but whatever – it was its own movie in the end, spliced up into perfectly placed bits, great characters, and Ms Keener – never been better. GO SEE IT – ITS F’N SWEET – ok?

As much as i enjoyed films of the past few years that have so cringe-inducingly been labeled as ‘mumblecore’ films (seriously, what is that? – why the need to label everything to the point that the label becomes the story and not the subject at hand?!), specifically those by andrew bujalski (funny haha, mutual appreciation), they have always felt just NEAR perfect to me. now this movie that was finally released here this weekend for me reaches that perfection. its called ‘the exploding girl’. im not good at explaining why i like things – but i will just say this is a really beautiful film – without even attempting to be – at all. its quiet – it floats by – and nothing substantial really happens over the course of its 80 minutes. it lets itself unravel all on its own – to a conclusion or not? but thats what i like about it. to me it seems harder to make a movie about every day life – to somehow make that interesting enough to fill a theater and keep people involved…. as opposed to blowing things up and creating over the top drama and tension. i enjoy that as much as the next person, but this kind of movie just, i dont know, respects the audience more and its so much more rewarding because of it. even though these earlier movies i mentioned are great in their own right, something always felt just a tad forced (just a dash of ‘creating over the top drama and tension’). the exploding girl to me strips that all away while still remaining in that style/genre. its rare to see a movie on screen where the performances are so quietly and beautifully done that its almost like spying on friends because it feels so real….so RAW! HA! i guess if the characters werent so pleasant this could be a truly unpleasant horror film – but luckily they are exactly the opposite. to some this movie may come across as pointless, but that’s life i guess – and this movie captures it wonderfully. every element – beautiful beautiful stuff.