Every big city has its (admittedly shrinking) share of repertory houses, but only Toronto has Mamo! to succinctly and knowledgeably outline the programming of said theatres. Here Matt and Matt discuss the 2012 Winter Season at Toronto’s TIFF Lightbox for The Substream.
And what delightfully eclectic programming they have his season. I’ll save the surprises for those who watch the video below.
The last existing double-stacked Edwardian Theater in the world, the Elgin-Wintergarden is a marvel to behold. I bring people to this theatre just to show them the theatre, let alone what is actually showing there. While it is a live-theatre auditorium for most of the year, whenever the Toronto International Film Festival rolls into town, it becomes the classiest place in Toronto to catch a movie, gold gilt ceilings, plush seats, a huge balcony, and up until 2006 free beer (if you got there early and had a VISA gold card). While I did manage to catch a production of Stomp at the Elgin many years ago, I’ve seen dozens of films there, from Robert Lepage’s Possible Worlds, to Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke to Park Chan-Wook’s Sympathy For Lady Vengeance to Terry Gilliam’s Tideland to Lars Von Trier’s Manderlay. Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon The Brain, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, live foley artists and a Castrato singer was one of the best film watching experiences in my lifetime. Thus, it will always be a cinema to me. (Part of me regrets the poor timing of being too young to experience it as a sleazy grindhouse in the 1970s! One owned by Famous Players no less!)
There are several unique and unusual things about The Highlands Cinema in Kinmount Ontario. The five-screen multiplex theatre, oddly located in a very rural area north-east of Toronto, has the motto: “You remember not only the movie, but the theatre.” This certainly true, albeit not necessarily for the programming, which consists entirely of summer blockbusters (in the the tiny town of Kinmount, the business is seasonal and the place is only open from spring until fall to locals and cottagers.) For layout and overall presentation of ‘going to the movies,’ however, the Highlands is likely the most unique and pleasurable place that I’ve seen a movie in Canada.
The first unusual aspect is that there is a museum within the complex. Free to browse with the purchase of a movie ticket, and wedged in the corridors and nooks and crannies that connect the multiple auditoriums, the collection on display has thousands of items of movie memorabilia. Articles, objects and other esoterica, from posters to even the shipping canisters (notably an embossed 35mm can for 2001: A Space Odyssey.) Vintage projections systems (8mm, 16mm, up to gigantic 1940′s 35mm projectors) pleasantly clutter the museum space along with lobby cards, photos of famous cinemas (now long gone), movie props and clothing of each era of cinema from the 1900s until the 2000s.
The second is the genesis of this particular cinema. Owner/operator/collector Keith Strata originally turned his house into a small movie theatre. He then started adding screens and and expansion until he hit five individual screens. His house (he no longer lives there) is a fair bit back and away from the main road. This places the entire parking lot in the middle of a forest! There are these narrow one-way connecting roadways to little parking ‘bays’ that hold about a dozen cars each. It is a strange and surreal experience simply parking at the Highlands. One can only imagine walking out of the Blair Witch Project into the sparsely lit copses of trees and cars.
The third thing is that the Highlands Cinema like has the most theatre screens per capita in North America. The entire town of Kinmount (with its permanent population well under 500) could fit into the all the seats and still have plenty of empty ones. The cinema sees about 50,000 visitors per season, so that places attendance over one thousandfold the number of locals. And yet the majority f my visits I have sat in one of the cosy auditoriums with nary a single empty seat.
For someone who values aesthetics, it is fantastic how the memorabilia and design has spilled into the the auditoriums themselves. Each one is decorated differently. One is lined with classic posters – when one-sheets were akin to tapestries, much, much longer than they were wide. Another is charmingly faux-art deco – gargoyles and all. Yet another looks like a typical multiplex auditorium, giving the set of 5 auditoriums the feel of the breadth of cinema exhibition. Top quality seats, apparently salvaged from prestige movie and vaudeville houses that have been tragically demolished are used in a few of the individual auditoriums – with an interesting mechanical reclining feature, that is pretty cool for seats made at the turn of the century, and have an almost steam-punk retrofuture feel.
The museum stuff which lines all the corridors between the screens is the central attraction for me; it has to be one of the largest private collections in the world (I am not exaggerating here, the collection is immense.)
For anyone looking for a film going experience like that of a bygone age (classic candy: liquorish whips!) with no Toyota advertisements, previews or Reward Club promos – the feature just starts when the lights go down – then this is the place.
I recall seeing half a dozen movies there over the decade since I’ve been aware of the theatre: Michael Bay’ The Rock, Aardman’s Chicken Run, sci-fi spoof Men In Back, The Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum, as well as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Yes, I remember the theatre more than the films, but because the venue is such a rich experience, each one of those blockbuster viewings I treasure.
[This has been the second entry in our Local Theatre Showcase, If there is a theater in your area you hold dear to your heart and would like to spotlight, contact andrew@rowthree.com with details.]
As a new experiment here at RowThree, I thought it might be fun to every once in a while put a spotlight on a local theater in some part of the world that for one reason or another stands out above the rest in its area. Maybe this theater has really great seating. Maybe they sell popcorn on a stick. Maybe they feature only NC-17 rated films. Or maybe it’s as simple as great ambiance that is simply unparalleled. If you have a theater in your area you’d like to mention here at RowThree, feel free to contact me for more details.
For this inaugural posting, I’d like to point you in the direction of The Parkway Theater in southeast Minnepolis. Once a real hole in the wall that was hard to sit in for the mildew odor and the burned out seats that had your back stiff in about ten minutes, The Parkway has really come around in the last three or four months.
Attached to a Mexican restaurant (same owner), this theater allows its patrons to move from the noisy crowd of the bar, after a hearty meal, into the comfort of the theater without ever trampling through the cold wind and snow of a Minnesota winter. Better still, drinks and food from the restaurant are allowed into the screenings since all the money goes to the same place anyway. If you’d prefer not to enter the restaurant, soda, beer, margaritas and extremely tasty popcorn are all available at the concession stand (mmmm tequila).
While still in renovation, the theater is really coming along nicely and it’s apparent that when fully functional will look fabulous. The smelly curtains adorning the walls have been removed and local artists have painted huge murals featuring interpretations of the performing arts circa 1930-1940.
The front few rows of regular theater chairs have been recently removed and in their stead are large, leather love seats with tables big enough for drinks and food to comfortably rest upon. Mighty comfortable!
But the best thing about The Parkway is its new program director who has really taken the reins and given Minneapolis exactly what it needs: more truly independent film! While still showing some of the high profile Hollywood hits on the weekends, The Parkway shows late night cult films, an early morning kids movie series and during the summer, a “Home Grown Cinema Series” which shows only locally produced films from Minnesota. All of this plus student film seminars and even harder to find, rare screenings such as the Raiders of the Lost Ark remake (our review).
All of these things help make this little known gem of cinematic greatness in Minneapolis a new found joy where I’m sure more than a good chunk of my pay checks will be going in the foreseeable future.
For more details, quite an interesting history (used to be a skin flick theater and gorgeous architecture was discovered after removing the ceiling) and showtimes, check out their also recently renovated web site at www.theparkwaytheater.com.
Again, if there’s a theater in your area you’d like to spotlight, contact andrew@rowthree.com for more details.
