« No More Pictures, I Promise | Main | Writing About Other Things Worth Writing About »

November 27, 2010

The Texas Theatre

I went to see Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void for the third time last night; my opinion of it hasn't changed since catching it at Sundance for the first time last winter, but it's just so damn big and impressive that I don't think I'll ever be able to turn down the opportunity to see it on the big screen. This particular opportunity was provided by The Texas Theatre, a new arthouse/repertoire cinema based in the historic Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas.To call it new is something of a misnomer; it was built in 1931 by Howard Hughes and endured for years as a traditional movie palace, until its reputation was sealed in November, 1963, when Lee Harvey Oswald was captured at the theater. Since then, it's been shuttered repeatedly, as Oak Cliff hopped on that urban carousel and went from affluence to barrio to kindling for the current civic renaissance that's starting to take hold.

Now, a consortium of valiant friends have bought the theater and are in the process of turning it into the sort of cinema that North Texas is entirely bereft of. Think The New Beverly, or the Alamo Ritz - a mix of new and old and great and strange. Heading up this venture are Barak Epstein, Eric Steele and Adam Donaghey, all of whom are filmmakers I've worked with in more creative capacities, and all of whom, I've noticed in those dealings, understand the business side of things in a way I am incapable of, which is why they're the ones polishing this old jewel and I'm just the one writing about it. And watching the movies. Which at the moment include a week of Gaspar Noe's epic, a Kurosawa retrospective, the local premiere of Guy and Madeline On A Park Bench and Frederick Wiseman's Boxing Gym. All this and the theater isn't even officially open yet - that happens at a big gala shindig in early December, once the renovations are 100% complete.

For folks such as myself, who have tremendous difficulty watching films at home, I suspect this theater will become a haven. And I look forward to this time next year, when it's joined by James and Amy's Citizen Theater in Fort Worth. Way to counter the Netflix blues, friends.

Posted by David Lowery at November 27, 2010 11:45 AM