The New Beverly Cinema Tell No One and A Girl Cut in Two Saturday, 1/3/09, 2:50 pm
Price: $4 (one out of 8 punches on a punch card I bought from the owner of the New Beverly, Sherman Torgan, in 2006; he passed away in 2007) Concessions: I bought some Raisinets (now advertised with “Fruit Antioxidants”), as the concessions here are the most reasonably priced in L.A. Audience: About 20-25 for each show, though not many of whom seemed to be holdovers like myself.Trailers/advertising: In addition to the “Coming Attractions” and “Feature Presentation” clips that are classic, beat-up time capsules, they showed a mix of mostly vintage trailers for upcoming films: The Last Picture Show and Dream of Life before the first film, Badlands, a bizarre, Bogdanovich-heavy What’s Up, Doc?, and very pink North by Northwest before A Girl Cut in Two. Projection: 35mm changeover, with many of the changeovers very visible, countdown leader and all. The focus was constantly wandering, but to their credit, it was constantly being tended to, at the beginning of each reel, of course, but at many other points along the way.
Has it really been a week? Time flies when you’re in a seat. A double feature at the venerable New Beverly was a great way to end my week of movie-going, and provided a nice contrast to the multiplexes and high-end theaters I had been frequenting earlier in the week. I’ve only been to the New Bev five times now, according to my punch card, but it’s the sort of place you appreciate even if you don’t go. That sort of attitude is probably why there aren’t more rep houses still around, but in a town full of movie choices, even though it’s sometimes hard to choose a double feature of two great films you’ve seen before, it’s reassuring to know that the option is there.
Brian joined me for the first film, and I struggled to remember all of the movies I’d seen over the week; maybe that’s a sign that I shouldn’t do this sort of thing very often. The prints for both of these films weren’t great, but both films were enjoyable. I was happy to see François Berléand, whom I recognized from the Transporter films (not a good admission to make, I know) in Tell No One; little did I know that it was a François Berléand double-feature, and he was the star of A Girl Cut in Two, as well. The seats at the New Bev aren’t the most comfortable, but the place is charming, shows great movies all the time, and has an important place in L.A.’s movie-going culture.
And to top it all off, another meter blinking “FAIL,” as all meters along Beverly seemed to be doing at that moment. I managed to park in the spot for five hours without a ticket, which is always nice.
