By ‘arts cinema’ I mean a theater that doesn’t show artistic or independent films- in a city as big as DC, this can’t be true…
Dunno about DC, but in Baltimore there’s the Charles Theater. http://www.thecharles.com/
It isn’t true. The Landmark Theater shows a lot of independent films, as do several other theaters. And you can see foreign and art and repertory films at AFI silver theater. Unfortunately a lot of the old independantly owned movie theaters like the Key or the Biograph or the Circle have closed. The last independant art house was the late, much lamented, Visions theater, where you could bring a beer into the show.
:eek: The Biograph closed?! 
(I’m a Georgetown alum.)
The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop shows movies
The Kennedy Center did but I’m not sure if they still do.
The E Street Cinema shows the usual stuff along with movies from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
The American Film Institute has the AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center. Along with the usual stuff, they’re currently running a retrospective on David Cronenberg, Otto Preminger, and Fellini & Masina.
Miss Jessica is Pregnant, Stranded in Canton, Zizek!, and Frames are currently showing at the National Gallery of Art.
The Biograph lost their lease in '96 and CVS took over the location.
Yes. As Lute says, it’s now a CVS. :mad:
It’s true that the “arts” movie theaters that were around as late as the mid-1980’s in the D.C. area have all closed. Incidentally, even back then I would never use that term to describe them. I called them repertory movie theaters. This meant that they mostly showed old films. All over the U.S. (and probably all over the world) repertory movie theaters have mostly disappeared since the early 1980’s. This kind of movie theater only started to become popular in the early 1960’s and peaked in popularity in the 1970’s. The main reason that such theaters have disappeared everywhere is videocassettes and DVD’s.
In the mid-1960’s there was the Key and the Biograph and the AFI at the Kennedy Center and (best of all) the Circle. Visions tried and failed to do the same thing in the 1990’s and 2000’s. While these sorts of theaters did some foreign and independent films that were in current release, they mostly did older films. All of those theaters are now gone. The AFI now does the same sort of thing at the Silver Theater in Silver Spring. Several movie theaters in the D.C. area show some foreign and independent films, mostly prominently the Landmark theaters downtown and in Bethesda. The National Gallery does a daily show. There’s also Filmfest D.C. every year.
The Circle was a great place. Two dollars a piece for a double bill. One dollar if you bought a book of ten tickets. The movies being shown changed four times a week.
The Cineplex Odeon at Shirlington concentrates on foreign and independent film. I used to live right next to Shirlington, and it was great having the theater so close.
The theater is also right next to a thriving dining district.
This is in Arlington County, not far at all from DC proper.
You stole my post!
I am not sure which one it is, but when I visited DC in 1997, there was a small art house theater near the Watergate.
It was built into a narrow strip mall right by this incredible restaurant.
Anyone know which one that was?
If the incredible restaurant you’re thinking of was an Italian place called Goldoni’s and there was a funny mural on the outside wall, then the theatre isn’t there anymore – they knocked them down to put up the Ritz Carlton condos. The restaurant moved near my office though.
Also cable. I remember 20 years ago that it was a big deal when Akron U was doing a double bill of A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races; if you missed it, it might be years before you got another chance to see them in town. But now, if I want to see a Marx Brothers movie, even if I’m too cheap to get the DVD, Turner Classic Movies will be playing one within the next week or so.
The Cineplex Odeon Dupont 5 in Dupont Circle is the same way, or at least it was several years ago when I used to walk by there every day. They’ve both conveted to Loews now, but a quick look at Fandango indicates that they haven’t changed format.
–Cliffy
FYI, Cineplex Odeon is now Loews Cineplex.
I wrote:
> In the mid-1960’s there was the Key and . . .
I meant:
> As late as the mid-1980’s there was the Key and . . .
It occurs to me that there’s another reason (besides videocassettes and DVD’s and cable) that the 1970’s were the height of popularity of repertory movie theaters in the middle of big cities. The early 1970’s were the low point of rental prices, not just in D.C. but in most American cities. Repertory movie theaters were not big profit makers. Even with the same amount of people attending the shows at these theaters, they could no longer afford the cost of renting or owning land in the middle of big American cities.
There’s an arts cinema in Fairfax, at the Fair City Mall; I think George Mason U. students are its bread and butter.
The Old Town theater in Alexandria on King Street, after about a decade of lying fallow, alternates arty releases with commercial ones (They alternated The Interpreter, The Weeping Camel, Batman Begins and March of the Penguins). They serve swell food and have live acts as well.
In DC proper, nearly all the grand old theaters from the 30s and 40s are gone. Many of them are CVS drugstores. The Ontario is now a huge Salvadoran-oriented store with cheap clothes and luggage. Only the Uptown and the Avalon (after several years of inactivity) remain, and they don’t run anything risky or uncommercial. Ultimately, the thing that saved them both was that CVS already owns stores next to one and across the street from the other.
Some of the megaplexes demonstrate a commitment to independent film. The new theater in Georgetown on the waterfront on K street showed a bunch of blockbusters–and The Aristocrats last time I was there. A half-hearted gesture, but I appreciate it just the same.
The hip film scene in DC has been decimated, but it’s not dead.