I learned today that a frined of mine is going to die. My friend is a movie theater. My friend is the best theater in the city. My friend shows old/older/eclectic/classic movies every day - twice a day. My friend is Berkeley's answer to San Francisco's Castro Theater. My friend is the UC Theater, and it will die in nine days. I love movies, and I love this theater. I love the way that it smells like an old gym. I love the way that instead of replacing the broken seats, they just put an old tshirt over them. I love the way that there's only one screen in the building. I love that when you buy a ticket, all you have to say is, "One." I love the way that the doorpeople give different handstamps for different days. I love that in the men's restroom, on the grout between the tiles, there are funny sayings that play on the words tile and grout like, "Tony the tiler says, 'They're grout!'" I love the people who work there because they all love the same movies as me. I love that my friend Will has annually put on his "Purple Rain" show there for ten years. I love that they put silly quotes from movies on the marquee like "Laugh while you can monkey boy!" I love that they have a request book for any desired future billings. I love the big old movie posters in foreign languages. I love that they still play John Waters' advice on smoking in the theater before nearly every show. I love that they served cake and ice cream at the theater's birthday.
I'm a film student at UC Berkeley, and the death of this theater is a tragedy. I've seen so many classics there - many for the first time, like Sergio Leone's masterpiece "Once Upon a Time In the West." There is no theater quite like the UC Theater, and it will be missed. It is voted the best theater in Berkeley every year by the campus newspaper, so it is not just me that supports this theater. I know that the last show will be packed, and not just because it's a double feature of American Beauty and High Fidelity, but also because the community loves this theater. I encourage all of you to go out and support your arthouse theaters. They are important, they are poorly funded, they are frowned upon by the big movie corporations, they are loved passionately by movie lovers.
I'm a film student at UC Berkeley, and the death of this theater is a tragedy. I've seen so many classics there - many for the first time, like Sergio Leone's masterpiece "Once Upon a Time In the West." There is no theater quite like the UC Theater, and it will be missed. It is voted the best theater in Berkeley every year by the campus newspaper, so it is not just me that supports this theater. I know that the last show will be packed, and not just because it's a double feature of American Beauty and High Fidelity, but also because the community loves this theater. I encourage all of you to go out and support your arthouse theaters. They are important, they are poorly funded, they are frowned upon by the big movie corporations, they are loved passionately by movie lovers.
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