United Artists Twin Peaks Mall

What I saw here: Where the Wild Things Are, October 2009.

As of today I'm shifting the focus of my blog from being primarily film-centric to being both film- and theater-centric, with an emphasis on the latter. In some ways, I've felt that seeing all these movies was simply an excuse to go into as many different movie theaters as possible.

In that spirit, I'm kicking off the new year with a post about what I think is the oldest existing movie theater along the Front Range north of Denver. The theater itself a multiplex of the Regal chain, and is inside the ancient but still operating Twin Peaks Mall in Longmont.

I was there over a year ago after returning to Colorado from being away for year. It was one of the first places I visited as part of an ongoing project of visiting all the movie theaters in this area. Until last year, I'd never been inside, even though I'd driven by it countless times on the route between Fort Collins and Boulder. It was always a pleasant sight to see back in the old days, because it meant you were almost at the turnoff onto the highway.

At the time the theater lobby and the coridors down to the auditoriums were festooned with all the promos for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie. It was almost like going into a cave, passing under the hanging banners. It was quite a tickling experience.

Yesterday I stopped to take this photograph while I was at a coffee shop on the other side of the street. I wasn't quite in the mood for a movie, but I crossed the street and the parking lot, and entered by the south end of the mall.

The place is nearly deserted, but I've come to learn to love such types of aging shopping centers as I've traveled around the country in recent years. The fact that the cinema is still operating inside is a good sign for the future.

Still there was a poignancy about seeing such a structure nearly vacant. I walked over the ancient tiles in the floor of the mall, in patterns of green, blue, and gold, and wondered about the decades of folk who had walked on it. Now most of the stores inside are empty. Yet there is life. People hang out there, even in a nearly empty food court, as if it's a town square. I chatted with the young woman at the ear piercing pagoda. She told me that the holidays had been fairly good.

There's a small cluster of still-operating mall-type businesses on the south end, including a few chain clothing stores. There's even a stage theater company there (link)---quite a surprise.

Mega CGR, Claira

It took about twenty minutes to get to the theater from La Maison de Verotte. The one-lane road, completely flat, wound through green vineyards with the Pyrenees looming in the distance, looking much like the familiar Rockies.

The theater is in the midst of a recent big box shopping center just off the highway. I'd scoped it out while coming in by car. As I walked amidst the businesses, picking my way through traffic, I was struck by how similar it seemed to an American big box complex. There was an electronics outlet, a "Home Depot" type place, a baby store, a pet store, and a large Carrefour, which is the French equivalent to a Wal-Mart. There were also fast-food outlets and family chain restaurants, including a Buffalo Grill, and one with a pirate theme.

The most noticeable thing about the Mega CGR is that the building is decorated by huge outlines of Charlie Chaplin, or "Charlot," as the French call him.

I got there about fifteen minutes before the 13:45 showing, which I'd found using the amazing Google Movies tool, which has yet to let me down. The times were exactly right (see listings here).

Of course I was fascinated by the design of the lobby. On the one hand, it looked very different from the typical American multiplex, with little island ticket booths. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of American multiplexes that didn't look typical to me either, so what do I know? I couldn't get any good shots inside, but maybe I'll find some later.

I did, however, catch a lucky break in that on Mondays, the usual ticket price was reduced from almost nine euros to only five euros and forty cents. It is part of general trend I've noticed, that prices in France (in euros) are almost the same as in the U.S., but in dollars. Of course that means you get screwed here, but what the hell, it's France!

There were twelve auditoriums in the multiplex, with the doors arranged in a great big semicircle around the lobby. The auditorium where my film was showing was nearly empty. It was almost like my usual ventures back in the states. The seats were very cushy with straight backs.

The trailers and ads started at the advertised time, and ran about twenty minutes until the actual feature. This part was familiar. The difference was that there were many more ads and fewer trailers, and the trailers themselves were only about thirty seconds in length. While the ads were running, I remembered that this situation (of too many ads before French movies) is actually parodied in an episode of French in Action, which is familiar to anyone who attempted to learn French in the 199os. Suddenly I was hearing Pierre Capretz's voice again, after many years, and thinking of Mireille. Ah, Mireille...

Cinema City, Lisbon

I finally had a chance to sit down and upload some of the photos I took in Lisbon. These ones show the Cinema City theater where I saw Tyson. From the outside, it doesn't look like much, being located rather inconspicuously in a large concrete building in a modern section of Lisbon, along a rather busy street. You can see the poster for Angos e Demonicos beside the door.

The inside is quite nice. In the top shot, you can see the interior cafe, from the table where I was sitting. It's on par with the nicer arthouse theater cafes in the United States. Of course, I have no idea if this is typical for Portugal, but it was a verytheater nice first experience.