I ♥ SF Cinemas

I visited San Francisco last month and had looked forward to checking out a bunch of single-screen and indie cinemas while I was there — take some pictures (to include in a blog post?) and maybe catch a few movies.  But alas, after all my mapping out transit to surviving moviehouses and scheduling potential filmgoing, I’d only gotten in one full day of exploring when my tummy got terribly upset and I ended up spending most of a night in the bathroom and two days in bed.  It was still a great getaway, and I was well tended-to by my kind host and feeling better by the time I had to fly back, but missing out on all I’d planned (like Celebrating the Balboa Theatre and Christmas Noir at the Castro) was a bummer.

Tho’ have had some time off from work this month (back at it tomorrow), had kinda let the idea of trying to redesign and resurrect this blog as a monthly thing fall by the wayside, cos my intended first post about my San Francisco cinema tour was wrecked by it being incomplete.  Then after another major bummer experience recently (losing my wallet containing all my movie means), I’ve been feeling pretty defeated all ’round.  But surely I could put together something for a January post, even if it wasn’t a proper written account of all the San Francisco theatres I’d envisioned getting to?

So, cos some Russian teenager who loves Robert Downey, Jr. already took my moniker on Tumblr, here are some pictures I took of San Francisco theatres (in the order in which I visited them)…

After arriving in town (by bus from the Amtrak in Emeryville – took the Coast Starlight down) I did I little wandering about before my downtown rendezvous, which included visiting one historic cinema…

Clay – 2261 Fillmore St.

Wanted to see the interior as this theatre’s over 100 years old, so did a matinee of My Week With Marilyn.  Took some pictures inside but the ones in the auditorium didn’t turn out very well.  Was there dust in the air or are those splotches century-old cinema-lovin’ spirits?

The next day I headed out on transit to hit a bunch of neighbourhood theatres…

Empire – 85 West Portal Ave.

Castro – 429 Castro St.

I think I took better pictures of the Castro when I was last there, for the 2008 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.  ‘Course then I got interior shots too.  But this post is just a record of my 2011 visit.  Here’s an attempt at capturing the grand entrance.

Roxie – 3117 16th St.

Victoria – 2961 16th St.

Metro (closed) – 2055 Union St.

Marina – 2149 Chestnut St.

Presidio – 2340 Chestnut St.

Vogue – 3290 Sacramento St.

On the bus between the Presidio and the Vogue, I realised I could almost make the 3 o’clock matinee of the Eames documentary at the Vogue (why hadn’t I scheduled myself that matinee?)  I arrived a couple minutes late, and tho’ I hate missing the beginning of a movie, I went in anyway.  Took some pictures on my way out and reckon this one of the auditorium (after some attempts at lightening it up a bit in iPhoto) is decent enough to include here.

Lumiere – 1572 California St.

Had lost the sun by the time I got to the Lumiere, and though day and night shots of all the theatres would’ve been nice, this is the best I got of the marquee.  Went in to see a late matinee of Drive.  Vaguely recall this divided-into-three theatre from 2003, when I was in town for the San Francisco version of Cinemuerte and saw Dahmer (starring a very impressive pre-Hurt Locker Jeremy Renner as the notorious serial killer.)  Tried taking snaps of each auditorium but too dark (so again with the iPhoto.)

And that’s it.  The next day’s plans for a cheap matinee double bill at the 4-Star and hanging in the Haight (for a pic of the closed-last-summer Red Vic) before an evening at the Balboa (a fundraiser including a Then & Now presentation on San Francisco theatres — yeah, I was actually gonna be in town when that was on!) had to be cancelled.  And a second day of convalescing meant no matinee at the New People/Viz Cinema or pictures of the Bridge or having a look at the Sundance Kabuki megaplex or older multis like the Opera Plaza or Embarcadero Center.

But there’s a January post.  Perhaps next month’s will be about my annual trip to the Victoria Film Festival.  If not, surely I’ll do my annual Oscar predix post.  Haven’t seen many of the just-announced nominations – guess I’d better get on that.