At the Movies

The foreign/repertory cinema scene

In the late 1970s we didn’t have streaming video, DVDs, or even VHS tapes, but we did have an amazing array of theaters in San Francisco. Besides the ones showing regular, first run movies, there were other species of theater that specialized in foreign or older films. These places tended to be smaller in size (and screen size) and to be located in out-of-the-way locations. The Surf theater, one of the best, was out by the beach and had it’s own little cafe because there was very little else around there. Going there involved a really long streetcar ride.

The Parkside theater was a repertory house showing a strange variety of foreign/art/classic films. I went there for a Woody Allen film festival that took days even at that point (around 1980). The most memorable thing about the Parkside was that only the balcony was used for seating as the main level had been turned into a daycare center. You would look down and see all the tiny furniture and kid’s art work and there were mini-drinking fountains and sinks in the lobby and restrooms.

The Cento Cedar was in the middle of a little side street -- pretty much an alley -- and the first time I went there I suspected the notice I’d seen for this movie was a plot to lure people there to rob them.  

The queen of SF repertory houses was The Castro theater on Castro Street in the next block from PBT (see The Book Business). It was, and still is, a classic movie palace with beautiful decorations and an organ (that rises up from below the stage before movies and at intermission) with an actual organist playing supposedly topical songs, but always ending up with “San Francisco” with the audience clapping and sometimes singing along. I watched the amazing Berlin Alexanderplatz at The Castro and then came back for a two day marathon of all 15 1/2 hours.

Another of these theaters that still exists is The Balboa where, much more recently, I saw The Best of Youth and, again, came back for a marathon. The Balboa is also close to the ocean but in a slightly more convenient neighborhood. The Red Vic closed just in the last year (2012) but it’s claim to fame as a repertory house was that instead of the usual theater seats, they had sofas for seating. It was always fun... until you started thinking about how many people had sat in those sofas and what might have accumulated down in those cushions.

By the late ‘80s, the proliferation of video rental places (there were three within walking distance of me in Noe Valley) was starting to kill off the little theaters.  The Clay shows mostly foreign films and is still hanging on. The Alhambra and the Royal are gone. The Vogue is still open but The Bridge and Lumiere have gone dark. The York and the Larkin are no longer in the business. The two Regency theaters have reverted to the ballrooms they were before.

Now, most of the video rental places have been killed off by Netflix and streaming.