Quentin Tarantino has been in the news a lot recently, as he and Harvey Weinstein try to steer Inglorious Basterds toward Oscar gold. Christoph Waltz seems a lock for best supporting actor, and QT may very well win his second for original screenplay (the first was for Pulp Fiction.) But none of this means as much as the news last week that Quentin Tarantino is now the landlord of the New Beverly Cinema.
Located near the intersection of Beverly Blvd and La Brea Ave in Los Angeles, the New Beverly is one of the last of a dying breed: the revival theatre. Since 1978, the theatre has been showing double features of cult and classic films. They change their programming 2 to 3 times a week, and over the years have expanded their repetoire to include second run, independent and midnight shows. It's not the most luxurious moviegoing experience you can have-the theater is old and could use some cosmetic enhancements-but it's a true gift for movie lovers. It's also a really cheap date. Even now, in 2010, double feature admission plus popcorn and soda for two will run you around $20.
Tarantino has vowed to mostly let the New Beverly stay the same. He plans to upgrade some light fixtures and equip the booth for digital projection. But he also wants the Beverly to keep showing 35 mm prints. "As long as I'm alive, and as long as I'm rich, the New Beverly will be showing double features in 35mm," Tarantino delcared.
Like Tarantino, I've had a long love affair with the New Beverly, dating back to the early 90's, which was my first time around in LA. I remember going there one night to see Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" and seeing Wayne Knight from Seinfeld and Bobcat Goldthwait a couple rows ahead of me. I had a friend who was a big Bobcat fan, so I got him to autograph a New Beverly calendar for me.
I dragged my visiting younger brother to the New Bev for a working class British Double bill in 1994. He remembers it as a Mike Leigh double bill, but I'm pretty sure it was Leigh's "Naked" following "Riff Raff" by Ken Loach.
Fast forward to late 2006, where I took in a screening of the original "Black Christmas", introduced by the director, Bob Clark. Clark died in a car crash a few months later.
I took my future wife there for a Billy Wilder double bill of "Ace in the Hole" and "Sunset Blvd". She didn't know that this invitation probably amounted to some sort of a test, but she accepted, and so she passed. I let it slide when she fell asleep during "Ninotchka" during another Wilder double bill I dragged her to a few months later.
But my favorite New Beverly story happened the night that Sherman Torgan gave me a ride home. Sherman started the whole operation in 1978, and ran it faithfully until his unexpected death in 2007. His son Michael then took over, and continues to run the theatre to this day. Back in those days(circa 1994), I went to the New Bev A LOT, and for at least a portion of this period, I didn't have a car. So one night I was standing outside on Beverly after a double bill, aimlessly waiting for a bus that was probably never going to show up, when Sherman pulled up in his brown BMW and asked me if I needed a lift. We didn't know each other by name, but I'm sure he recognized my face as a regular New Bev patron. I told him where I was going, and he told me to hop in and delivered me to my front door. I was already well sold on the New Beverly Experience by this time, but after that, they had a customer for life. So thanks to Quentin for keeping a great LA institution alive. See you at the movies...
Partial list of films I've seen at the New Beverly Cinema:
Reservoir Dogs (it played midnight Saturdays for years)
True Romance
Badlands
The Bad and the Beautiful
Touch of Evil
Naked
Riff Raff
Three Colors: Red
Three Colors: Blue
The Double Life or Veronique
Andrei Rubelev
Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Black Christmas
Ace in the Hole
Sunset Blvd
Ball of Fire
Ninotchka
Manhattan
Annie Hall
www.newbevcinema.com
