Outside the Waldbaum's supermarket, a man was selling bootleg
DVDs of movies still playing in movie theaters. Earlier that day,
a woman walked through the Pizza Hut I was lunching in, hawking
similar ware. Once upon a time, I would never have been tempted
to purchase a pirated DVD, but I must confess the urge was there
because some films up for an Oscar this weekend have never made
it to Staten Island.
"Brokeback Mountain" has been enjoying a healthy run
here because of the gay cowboy hype, but
"Transamerica," about a pre-op transsexual, has yet to
be shown. "Capote" finally made it here a few weeks
ago. However, it lasted only two weeks and one of those weeks the
film was scheduled for only two evening showings. Theater owners
and distributors have confirmed that they book only movies that
will attract large audiences, and "art" films rarely
perform well at the box office, especially here in Staten Island.
Pardon me while I take umbrage at that allegation of
provincialism.
I'm a native Manhattanite who cut my moviegoing eyeteeth in small
art theaters like the sorely missed Thalia on West 94th Street,
which charged only $1. The Apollo Theater on 42nd Street was a
treasure chest of foreign classics as long as you didn't pay too
much attention to the man with the trench coat on his lap three
seats down. ...And you call me unsophisticated?
The reality is that Staten Island is rapidly changing, with a
growing influx of Brooklyn and Manhattan natives who are
demanding more than the standard blockbuster shown in the
megaplexes. There is a strong market for the small independent
films, although the venue for showing such films is still to be
discovered. I have long hoped that some cinephile investor would
buy the Paramount Theater on Bay Street and convert it into a
screening room for independent films. This theater showed the
first film Tom Hanks ever made, "He Knows You're
Alone." I've also been told that Mary Pickford once appeared
at a premiere here in the 1920s.
Presently, the only possible option for this new film audience is
the renovated St. George Theatre, which will be the opening site
of the upcoming Staten Island Film Festival on June 1. This gem
of a movie palace was lovingly restored to its Art Deco glory and
currently presents a variety of entertaining family spectaculars
like "Pippi Longstocking," "Clifford the Big Red
Dog," and more. Musical presentations are also scheduled,
including Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge and 257 326 425
338Air Supply. I'm booking my reservation to see Jackie Mason on
April 1 and that's no joke. For their schedule
seehttp://www.stgeorgetheatre.com.
What is not widely known is that Staten Island has a long history
in the film industry. Many silent films were shot here, including
segments of classics such as "Birth of a Nation" and
"The Perils of Pauline." Silent-film star Mabel Normand
was born here and starred in several Keystone Kops short
features, filmed on South Beach. Staten Island once had two movie
studios: Fred Scott's Movie Ranch on Sand Lane in South Beach,
which operated from the 1890s to 1914; and the Biograph in West
Brighton, which opened in 1906 and closed in 1922. Stapleton
Studios operated briefly here in the Navy Homeport until the
Bloomberg administration halted it, and I still don't know why.
The Island has always been disguised as other locations, and
perhaps that has perpetuated the impression that we are a
backwater borough. In "Splendor in the Grass," starring
Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood, our Travis district became
Kansas. We've stood in for Vermont numerous times because there
are so many stretches of tree lined roads here. The Greenbelt in
summer resembles the Adirondacks.
The recently released film, "Freedomland," starring
Samuel Jackson and Julianne Moore, was filmed on the grounds of
the old Seaview Hospital, not Willowbrook as some lazy writer
wrote in a tabloid review of the film.
I have yet to see "Capote" nor have I seen
"Transamerica," another film I was interested in
because I regard Felicity Huffman as a very fine actress. I will
just have to wait for their DVDs to be released ... legitimately,
of course.
The theaters are a business and I have no objection to their
owners operating them strictly on a profit basis. I would like to
suggest, however, that there is a market for a more intimate film
environment that's not being cultivated. If certain arty films
have not been successful when they were booked here, it's
probably because they were pure "garhbarge," not
because they were over our heads. When it comes to the movies,
Staten Islanders are way ahead of the curve when it comes to
taste.