The last movie theatre that I loved that is no more was the legendary Northpark 1 & 2 in Dallas. This is where I met AFI Dallas programmer James Faust for the first time at a midnight screening of Pulp Fiction, where the sound system was jacked up to the 9’s in apocalyptic surround sound. Seeing a movie inside Northpark 1 was just an amazing experience. The local legend was always that George Lucas himself brought out a special team from Skywalker Sound to install the sound system there. Whether that was true or not I may never know. What I do know is outside of the Melia movie theatre in Sitges it as by far the richest and most visceral sound systems of all times to experience a movie in. Seeing a movie there made gave the movie going experience a whole new meaning and depth you couldn’t find in the haphazardly large movie chain theatres (that just never cared if the film was out of focus, the sound to soft, etc.,). I especially remember one day going to see the first screening of Robert Zemeckis’s Contact. I had a full day ahead of running errands and trying to get caught up. However, that AMAZING opening sequence where we crawl backwards through space and history combined with the amazing trip through space at the end was just jaw dropping to experience in Northpark 1. Those sequences were an absolute rush. I had chills sitting there experience those moments. I wound up spending the entire day there watching Contact, again and again until its very last showing that day.
They really don’t make movie theatres like Northpark 1 & 2 much anymore, which is why I was extremely sad when they tore it down to build a freaking department store. So when someone people may say “oh it’s just a move the Downtown Drafthouse is making”, I think at some point it will hit them how much magic and meaning the original location had. Northpark 1 & 2 has been gone for years now and I still miss it. Heck, even one small mom and pop type theatre where I used to go to every test screening I could for films when I was younger I still miss. The location is torn down but everytime I pass it I think about the super long cut I saw of the first Lethal Weapon (even longer than the directors cut that came out) and the nearly four hour cut I saw of Ice Pirates.
The amazing Alamo Downtown Blog-a-Thon felt like a funeral for a movie theatre where each person got up and stood over it telling their favorite memories of it. Thank you so much to everyone that participated! I really look forward and cannot wait for the Ritz to open. And I don’t know about you but I still plan in the days, weeks and years ahead to go back to the original location and reminisce over the the wonderful times spent there.
So as it now stands with the passing of the Drafthouse location, my favorite movie theatres in existence are the Melia movie theatre in Sitges. In the To film Exile when the bullet shells are falling it felt like boulders were coming out of the ceiling and smashing your skull open. What an incredible theatre and sound system it has. When they showed “The Host” last year you could be outside the theatre when it was showing and hear the monster running around and immediately know what part of the film it was from. I also really like the theatre in Udine. It has seemingly 20 balconies in its 1,000+ seating.
I do like the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar location so that will more than fill in for the downtown location being gone until the Ritz opens up. Thank God there still will be a downtown location! Can you imagine Austin without the Drafthouse at all? Without Tim or Karrie? Being forced to watch our favorite movies either at home on video (think of how many films they screen that would NEVER be shown at any theatre) or having to go out to some multiplex movie theatre chain location where the movie going experience is the least and last thing the people running it care about.
This downtown move while also being sad is also a great reminder how lucky Austin is and we as die hard films fans are to have Tim and Karrie and the Drafthouse staff in our lives!
BRING ON THE RITZ BABY!!!
