Red Vic Rep House in SF Closing

This really gives me a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/06/DD4O1K6O74.DTL

Another rep house bites the dust. I was at the Vic recently, for a test screening of a friend's feature, so I'm glad I got to visit one last time. At one point, I even applied to join the collective that ran the place.

I am just as complicit in this theater shutting as anybody. I used to go occasionally back in the day, then more and more found myself watching the classics at home. It was just more convenient. Growing up, I used to go to rep theaters like The Strand in SF (closed in 2003, then turned briefly into a porn theater, now totally gone), or the UC Theater in Berkeley (closed since 2001). More recently, the Parkway in Oakland also shut its doors.

At this point, the only rep house I regularly patronize is the magnificent Castro Theater. It helps that it's a short walk from my apartment, and that it's home to several excellent festivals.

What the hell, people?! For better or worse, a way of experiencing movies -- much different than standard commercial theaters, and with very different audiences -- is disappearing.

It is pretty sad to see the Vic go. Saw some great stuff there over the years, one of the places I made a point to frequent while I briefly lived in the City.

Great to hear mention of the Parkway (RIP). I REALLY miss that place. The tale of how they had to get out of the business after the failed Cerrito deal is pretty heart wrenching as well. Always sad to see business owners put their last savings into something, only to be screwed at the end.

There are still good theaters in the East Bay at least. There's the Grand Lake, which does play a lot of first run stuff, but isn't a big chain multiplex either. I've not been out to the Orinda theater which the same guy owns, but I hear it's pretty bomb as well.

Landmark, for a chain, does a good job of getting films outside the mainstream an audience - but still has a little of the chain feel to it.

I think the big thing we loose when one of these places disappears are the special events put on by the staff. The Piedmont over here does a great Midnight series in weekends, playing classic stuff, silly stuff, whatever. Just an example.

Many of the movie experiences I remember as being very magical or intense were at rep houses. Like the first times I saw "Seven Samurai," or "Lawrence of Arabia," when I was just a young teen, and was swept away by their epic scope.

Or there was the first time I went to the Strand, for a midnight screening of "Rocky Horror," when the live show was in its prime, around 1979. Even outside in line, it was a circus-like scene; the "cast" in full costume was waiting to get in, and some guy was going down the line offering various drugs for sale. When the show started, the audience was insane -- yelling things out in response to the action, raining down rice and toilet paper, and water from squirt guns -- and for a 12-year-old kid, it blew my mind.

These are some of the experiences that made me want to make movies -- which often involved engaged audiences.