@ Rossoneri Ultra – don’t worry about looking, there aren’t any good movie houses in Brisbane. In recent years many cinemas with character, and with good taste in films, closed. I am not aware of all the arthouse places that existed but there are a few that I was personally very disappointed to see close.
The Village Twin in New Farm was a Brisbane institution. It had funky 1970s decor and was in a great part of town. It used to show retrospectives, I remember seeing a few Woody Allen films there and some Bette Davis films, and some modern day non mainstream films. I wish I had seen more films there.
Another favourite venue where I saw many inspiring films was the Schonnell Cinema at the University of Queensland. They showed an interesting mix of films. There were the obligatory fairly new releases but also foreign arthouse cinema and retrospectives. I remember seeing Hirokazu Koreeda’s Nobody Knows there, I saw the film about French gypsies Swing and many others that I can’t remember right now. Unfortunately someone at the cinema decided to embark upon an expensive renovation and try to move upmarket, show more new releases and bring in more revenue. It was never going to be able to compete with your megaplexes so it ended up closing due to the losses. The end of compulsory student unionisms didn’t help either. It has now reopened and appears to have returned to its roots. I note they are showing The Cove there now and a few other foreign films. I haven’t been there recently but I hope they will be able to carve out a niche the only true arthouse cinema in Brisbane.
There were other little cinemas like the Classic in East Brisbane. I saw Edge of 17 there one summer. It closed years ago.
Closer to home there was a suburban cinema near where I live now at Gaythorne. It used to show new releases after the majors had finished with them but also had some slightly more interesting selections. I remember seeing Fight Club there. I have fond memories of going there as a child with my father, the cat that used to belong to the owners wandering in and out of the cinema.
In Brisbane we have two chains that have pretensions to being arthouse – Dendy and Palace. They occasionally show independent films but not very often. They mainly stick to well made foreign films that will attract the viewers. Their counterparts in Sydney and Melbourne show a more diverse range of films but Brisbane doesn’t get the most ambitious films. I remember reading a review of 3-Iron and thinking yes, I must see this film. No release in Brisbane, just Sydney and Melbourne.
One chain that I will give credit to is AMC. I saw a review about The Accident on David and Margaret’s at the movies. Is it showing at any of our so called arthouse/foreign film cinemas in Brisbane? No, but it is showing at the supposedly budget cinema complex AMC at Sunnybank. A similar thing happened with an Australian film about the lebanese youth culture in Sydney The Combination. It showed at AMC, and the Hoyts in the city but not at Dendy or Palace.
Favorite Theaters/Movie Houses over 2 years ago
@ Rossoneri Ultra – don’t worry about looking, there aren’t any good movie houses in Brisbane. In recent years many cinemas with character, and with good taste in films, closed. I am not aware of all the arthouse places that existed but there are a few that I was personally very disappointed to see close.
The Village Twin in New Farm was a Brisbane institution. It had funky 1970s decor and was in a great part of town. It used to show retrospectives, I remember seeing a few Woody Allen films there and some Bette Davis films, and some modern day non mainstream films. I wish I had seen more films there.
Another favourite venue where I saw many inspiring films was the Schonnell Cinema at the University of Queensland. They showed an interesting mix of films. There were the obligatory fairly new releases but also foreign arthouse cinema and retrospectives. I remember seeing Hirokazu Koreeda’s Nobody Knows there, I saw the film about French gypsies Swing and many others that I can’t remember right now. Unfortunately someone at the cinema decided to embark upon an expensive renovation and try to move upmarket, show more new releases and bring in more revenue. It was never going to be able to compete with your megaplexes so it ended up closing due to the losses. The end of compulsory student unionisms didn’t help either. It has now reopened and appears to have returned to its roots. I note they are showing The Cove there now and a few other foreign films. I haven’t been there recently but I hope they will be able to carve out a niche the only true arthouse cinema in Brisbane.
There were other little cinemas like the Classic in East Brisbane. I saw Edge of 17 there one summer. It closed years ago.
Closer to home there was a suburban cinema near where I live now at Gaythorne. It used to show new releases after the majors had finished with them but also had some slightly more interesting selections. I remember seeing Fight Club there. I have fond memories of going there as a child with my father, the cat that used to belong to the owners wandering in and out of the cinema.
In Brisbane we have two chains that have pretensions to being arthouse – Dendy and Palace. They occasionally show independent films but not very often. They mainly stick to well made foreign films that will attract the viewers. Their counterparts in Sydney and Melbourne show a more diverse range of films but Brisbane doesn’t get the most ambitious films. I remember reading a review of 3-Iron and thinking yes, I must see this film. No release in Brisbane, just Sydney and Melbourne.
One chain that I will give credit to is AMC. I saw a review about The Accident on David and Margaret’s at the movies. Is it showing at any of our so called arthouse/foreign film cinemas in Brisbane? No, but it is showing at the supposedly budget cinema complex AMC at Sunnybank. A similar thing happened with an Australian film about the lebanese youth culture in Sydney The Combination. It showed at AMC, and the Hoyts in the city but not at Dendy or Palace.
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