And Now For Something Completely Different: Film Exhibition

In honor of our upcoming May 29th Regency Cafe Movie Night, Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different... I will now discuss something else.

Film Exhibition

Not for the faint of heart, film exhibition has had a long, risky, and illustrious history....

Wait, what is "film exhibition?"

Oh, right... let me start over. Film Exhibition is the act of presenting films to the public. Most people have experienced "Film Exhibition" in some form or other. Any time you go to a Regal Cinema, the Ritz, or the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, you have taken time out of your week to have someone exhibit films to you.

I've been to a movie theater if that's what you're saying, but it's not some sort of exhibition... they have exhibitions at museums and stuff. A movie theater's a movie theater.

Okay... so contemporary "movie theaters" have taken several giant steps away from "Film Exhibition" toward "Keep enough people flowing through the theater to cover the film rental costs, and to sell enough candy, popcorn, and soda to barely cut a profit."

Oh come on, you're talking like movie theaters are an endangered species.

Well.. They've certainly been evolving over the years. Movie theaters started out with Arcades, where for a nickel you could sit down look in a little box, and watch a "moving picture." Soon, the movie theater was born. Where ever someone could put a projector, they could show movies.

Oh, I get it... that's what you do.

Sort of.

So you call that exhibition? Nowadays, I doubt you'll be bringing people in if you're just sticking a projector somewhere and throwing up some folding chairs. That sounds more like "high school A/V club" than exhibition.

Now, now... be nice. However, you're right. That's not exhibition, but that is something I can do. And of course, there's nothing wrong with special events like that. In fact, that could be the only way you'd be able to see some films on a big screen.

So, if that's not exhibition, and contemporary movie theaters aren't exhibition, then what, pray tell, is film exhibition.

Film exhibition is the presentation of film. Real film exhibition is going to mean that the experience of watching a movie is completely unique. You'll say to yourself, wow, not only was that film great, but the theater was fun to be in, the food was great, the presenter was entertaining!

When was there ever such a place?

Ah... the age of the Movie Palace. You didn't just pay for a ticket, sit in the dark, and then go home. The movie palace was a place you could go out dressed well, you could sit in the most elegant building you may ever see, see a variety act, eat food, enjoy drinks... For a while you could enjoy the spectacle of Film.

Well, that's not what they do now.

Nope. And man is that an utter shame.

So... are you suggesting you can bring film spectacle to where ever it is you're screening films this week?

Nope... at least... not yet.

(Next Time, I'll discuss the move from one screen, to multiple screens.)