sundance 2006 - Zoael

Fine Arts Theater
Reopens in
Beverly Hills
Brings with it Vestiges of
Hollywood’s Golden Era
BY CRISTIANNE ROGET
MICHAEL S. HALL, PRESIDENT
and Founder of Screening
Services Group, operator of
the Fine Arts Theatre, the nearby
Wilshire Screening Room and the
Wilshire Screening Room Art Gallery
has made the three venues available
for receptions, single bookings or
lengthy theatrical runs.
The patron-friendly Fine Arts
Theatre on Wilshire Boulevard in
Beverly Hills is now available for bookings
and rentals to meet the demands
of the Academy, Sundance and Cannes
screening season that is in full-swing.
Major studios, producers, independent
filmmakers, companies, post facilities,
organizers of film festivals and retrospectives
are already jockeying for
position on the Fine Arts Calendar to
showcase their latest film release.
The world premiere of The
Weinstein Company’s Mrs. Henderson
Presents was among the inaugural
events to be held in the Fine Arts
Theater. Luminaries including Judy
Dench, Bob Hoskins and director
Stephen Frears were walking the red
carpet into a theatre that has undergone
complete renovation and has
been restored to its original grandeur.
The renovation and reopening of the
Fine Arts Theatre is not unlike the
reopening of Mrs. Henderson’s historic
Windmill Theater, the subject of the
movie. The Fine Arts Theatre captures
the splendor and spirit of the past
blending exciting architecture with the
latest technology. Mrs. Henderson
Presents tells a true-life tale of the notorious
theater whose proud boast was
that it never closed during the London
blitz of WW2. A formidable and persuasive
dilettante (Dench) partners with an
equally tenacious theatre manager
Vivian Van Damm (Hoskins). The argumentative
duo wins a regular audience
in the cut throat competitive world of
Soho theatres by discovering a loophole
in the censorship laws which permits
totally nude models on stage as tableau
vivants, i.e. living statues!
Though Michael claims there are no
immediate plans for an all-nude review
at the Fine Arts Theatre, he and his
team are planning a series of showy
events to attract discerning Los
Angeles audiences. These include
weekend retrospectives, independent
releases and one-of-a-kind events.
The Fine Arts Theatre is grander in
style if not in dimension than the movie
palaces of yesterday when theatre going
was a glamorous experience and not a
drudge-like chore. Gracing the lobby is a
hand painted mural of a comely damsel
with eyes flecked in gold leaf and sapphires,
splashes of vivid color, gilt plaster
and hand carved stone.
The three locations, each with a
personality and life all their own, are
equipped to project content on almost
any delivery system with state of the
art projection systems from DVD to
35mm to HD digital projection. A 2K
digital projection will be installed
shortly at the Fine Arts Theatre.
Catering to the rich tradition of the
indie filmmaker, the theatre offers
some of the most competitive prices
available anywhere. Its central location
and visibility, with an estimated
100,000 motorists passing the marquee
each day, all but guarantees the
success of any booking.
Combine this with architectural
details that include a black glass and
silver gourmet stocked concession,
430 plush seats upholstered in rich red
velvet, a staff that has refined the art
of customer service with ushers in
black tie and a private parking lot, and
you have a few of the countless amenities
that come standard at the theatre.
Additional services offered by
Screening Services Group are equipment
rentals for film and video as well
as audio and projection engineering
services. The theatre also serves as a
shooting location. A Coca Cola competition
spot wrapped on site last week.
Michael, who gives off an air of
refinement, arrives impeccably attired
to host the evening’s entertainment. He
is self-possessed about his dedication to
making success of this new venture. He
admits his true motivation in manning
the gallery and two theaters is to make
sure films that deserve an audience are
not left behind. As independent theatres
(sometimes referred to as art or
revival houses) must face off with the
lackluster mega-multiplexes, the “business”
of indie theater exhibition has
become a misnomer. It is less a “business”
and more a “passion.”
The Fine Arts Theatre has already
66
PHOTO BY JOE KLEINMAN
Michael S. Hall, President and Founder,Wilshire Screening Room
captured the devotion of a growing audience.
Theatergoers are lured by the
blaze of neon on the marquee, the
seductive posters framed in hand carved
wood and gold leaf, the crisp snap of icy
cola and the rich and redolent popcorn.
Referred to by Scott Bayer, publisher
of Film Festival Reporter, as “the hardest
working exhibitor in Hollywood,”
Michael has been in the exhibition business
for close to three decades. His first
behind-the-projector job began at the
tender age of eleven. These days, when
he is not sleeping on a woolen mat
between two projectors in his office, he
is finding yet another way to enhance
the business. It’s in his blood.
In fact, he is a third generation projectionist.
His great-grandfather started
in 1907 and joined the IATSE in 1908.
“My grandfather began in 1935 with his
brother to follow thereafter, and I began
in June of 1977, three months before
turning twelve, as a projectionist at a 3screen,
1,500 car drive-in theatre.”
“Yes, my Great-grandfather started
at a storefront nickelodeon by hand
cranking a projector and catching the
film in a bushel basket after it left the
projector. One of the theatres my
grandfather worked at was the
Fabulous Fox in St. Louis. At the time,
it was the third largest single-screen
theatre in the United States, with 5,060
seats. They saw a lot of action in those
days. In fact, my Grandfather and his
dad, during the 30s, fought the Mob
when they had taken over the IA. One
memorable day they were in a shootout
with the Mob.” When asked the outcome
for his family, Hall quipped, “They
survived, the others didn’t.”
The Fine Arts Theater and the
Wilshire Screening Room harken back
to the time when catching a film at the
local Bijou was a memorable experience.
Who can forget the scene in
Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema
Paradiso in which the two villagers
caught each others eyes in the darkened
theater and true love was born?
The Fine Arts experience brings to its
patrons this magic. One almost tiptoes
into the hushed theater to join in
a collective experience at an optimum
point of concentration. This is stuff
from which memories are made.
ON THE TECHNICAL SIDE
Not unlike the protagonist in
Umberto Eco’s literary masterpiece
Foucault’s Pendulum, Michael Hall
developed a love for tinkering with
things and, in fact, worked as a maintenance
engineer for Edwards
Theatres. His abundant responsibilities
included maintenance at the Big
Newport, the granddaddy of state-ofthe-art
projectors.
“During my time as chief projectionist,
I have also covered vacation shifts at
Pacific Theatres, the Paseo Pasadena
and National Amusements’ the Bridge. I
like to know my equipment inside and
out and am responsible for taking care
of all repairs on site myself. If anything
goes wrong on a screening for a client,
we don’t need to send for an outside
engineer. I fix it on the spot.”
This is no small attribute given the
boiler-room stress of a first off screening
and the ramifications held in the balance.
By their very nature, screenings,
unlike box office fare, usually have key
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