Every cinemaphile knows where they best enjoy a movie. Some people prefer the big multiplexes, people like me like the run down smelly grindhouses. Some just prefer just sitting at home. I've lived in a few places, and i'll tell you my favorite theaters in those areas:
Germany - The Grindel Kino
I only saw a few movies at this place since i was only in germany for a short period of time, but my god was it beautiful. It also had a curved screen. I'd never been to a place that had one. I saw sin city there, land of the dead, and New Police Story. As with most euro-cinemas, this place served beer and yeasted popcorn as well as your standard snacks.
JEDIT! (wow i actually typed that out by accident, but fuck it, i'm a jedi editing?): Unfortunately, the place has been torn down. Shame too. I'd never experienced a curved screen before, but i'm glad i did, it was really cool. It had that feeling like it was natural to your eyes, you know?
Pic of the screen:
Virginia - Foxchase Cinema 3
Sucks that it's now the entire shopping center was torn down. I grew up with that theater. It used to be a normal theater until it stopped making money. Eventually they started catering to the growing indian population of northern va and started showing bollywood movies. Sometime's they'd show an indie documentary or you'd see something like resevoir dogs being shown there. But it's biggest selling point was that it was the last of the porn theaters in the DC area. They would show hardcore new stuff, classic porn, pretty much everything. I was almost able to convince them to let me do a martial arts matinee, but unfortunately i moved away by the time they were about to let me. Shame, really.
New York City - Sunshine and Film Forum.
Of the two, my favorite is the sunshine. It's an old theater that was reconstructed with stadium style seating. They have decent prices on refreshments and they show mainly indie and foreign during the day. On fridays and saturdays (as well as sundays at times) they show midnight movies. Anything is available, and changes week by week. When i leave new york, i'm going to say farewell to the city i loved by seeing evil dead at the sunshine. As an added bonus, they usually put up a vintage poster of what they're going to be showing at the midnight screenings and they tend to be in relation to what's going on in films at that time. When avatar came out, they showed aliens and terminator. It was also the first theater i got to experience when i first moved here with a screening of teen witch with the producers, the star, and the directors. Since then i've gone to the theater hundreds of times for various midnight screenings from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Die Hard to Dr. Butcher MD. Brilliant theater.
Film Forum on the other hand is completely different affair. While they do show cult films, their bread and butter is classic revivals and that old-time movie experience. One of my favorites i saw there was Murder at Rue Morgue which was actually showen in 3D. They were also showing House of Wax in 3D at the same time. The experience was amazing. It had an intermission where me and my date hung out and just talked about what we'd just seen. Then the film reel started up again and popped our glasses back on. The prices for snacks is pretty reasonable and they served gingerale! They also have week long festivals such as The Return of William Castle, where the old gimmicks are brought back from the grave, and you get to experience them if you never got a chance to.
http://www.filmforum.org/films/castle.htmlBUT THAT'S NOT ALL! They bring back classic films as well, not just the cheez. This week they're playing mamma roma and battleship potempkin. All in all, if you're a film nerd, it's definitely a place to visit. The reason why it isn't my favorite theater in new york is because it's a bit cramped, and i'm a sucker for stadium style seating.
ANOTHER JEDIT: I'm going to be moving to chicago in about two months, I'm hoping that some of you in the chicago area can tell me about some awesome theaters there. I've actually never been to the city. I hear the siskel theater is pretty cool, but other than that i don't know any of the cool theaters there.
