Mann Festival Theater
10887 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10887 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
21 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 67 comments found
What an ugly ceiling.
I hope so. Indeed the balcony was a nice place to see a film, aside from the Cineplex Odeon color scheme and marble tile. Something should also be done about the ceiling in the place as well. If my memory serves it looks like sagging pieces of 4 x 8 cork board painted Cineplex grey.
One wonders if maybe the Festival could be picked up by whoever takes the Bruin and the Village. It’s a longshot, but one worth hoping for. I always loved the balcony here.
Has anything been planned for the vacant Festival space?
Westwood was great in the mid-80s, when I used to go. It was a combo of the tourist getting shot and killed in the village in 1988, and the SM promenade gearing up around the same time.
Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable, to any of us who knew and cherished Westwood Village in (in my case) the 1970s and 1980s. That this kind of area in any decent city, let alone one on the scale of L.A., could see this kind of change so rapidly, is shocking to those of us who have been away for some years. It’s unimaginable.
I was heartbroken to find out about this. I was looking up the listings at the Mann site to see what was playing there today, only to find out they are closed. Early in 2007 I went to see Children Of Men starring Clive Owen. That movie was very special not only to me, but also to the staff working at the Festival. I saw it several times, both from the main floor and also from the balcony, and enjoyed hot dogs and soda while I was there. I have the movie on Blu Ray and I know a tear will come to my eye when I watch it again.
Here are some photos from this weekend:
http://tinyurl.com/m29h6f
http://tinyurl.com/mpluar
http://tinyurl.com/lujgtk
http://tinyurl.com/nn97y8
Has there been any buzz about the future of this property?
I worked as a relief projectionist once at the then UA THEATRE. The movie was the the first run engagement of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. with Reserved seats yet! at the 8pm show there were only 7 people in the audience.
Zubi: You are absolutely correct however the Chinese and the Dome (the Dome itself being the finest place in L.A. to see a movie) had other screens built around them rather than being multiplexed and are still separate buildings which are for the most part unaltered. I still get that special feeling when I go there. I think other single screens, like the El Capitan, will eventually stop running film (or digital) and be used for other purposes. No other theaters have the unique characteristics of the Dome and the Chinese.
Oh man, some scary news to be found here about Mann. Simply unimaginable.
Meanwhile, on the subject of the UA THEATRE, as I knew it in the 1970s, I’d like to add my remembrance of “1984”, as well as (I think): the Herzog/Kinski “Nosferatu”, “High Anxiety”, and “Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother”. There were surely more, but some of them stick in your mind and others don’t. And I definitely remember the balcony, and appreciative full houses for the Brooks and Wilder.
I think the Vista and Aero will also be with us for a while. I worry about the Egyptian, between the Cinematheque’s two houses.
LA times reports Mann will not renew leases on Westwood’s Village and Bruin:
View link
Manwithnoname, Technically, Cinerama-Hollywood is no longer a single, since it now shares a common box office with other screens. Like ArcLight, of course, this is what should’ve been done for the National-Westwood: new wraparound construction girding an historic core. It’s what Mann did at Chinese-Hollywood in the 70s with the Chinese Twin; again this decade with the 6. It’s what UA tried to do with Egyptian-Hollywood in the 80s but were blocked (look what American Cinematheque did later to that place – horrible). Hopefully, all the Westwood singles will remain as upgraded, first-run movie houses and not reduced to other uses.
I really seem to think Mann is slowly closing shop. They are not renewing any leases in SoCal. All plans for new venues have been cancelled. The Chinese is getting mostly awful bookings. Before too long Mann theatres will be a thing of the past.
Are we doomed to see the Chinese Theater (unfortunately also operated by Mann) and possibly the Cinerama Dome become the last operating single screen theaters in Southern California?
Hmmm…I wonder what the future will be? Could someone take the lease? Westwood has so many empty retail spaces so converting it to a retail outlet is not logical. But at the same time it costs a pretty penny to operate the theatre. Sad, because this is a very nice screen.
View link
Apparently, the Festival is now closed.
Whatever name you call it this has always been an also-ran to the grand palaces of Westwood, but with the demise of these (National, Plaza, Regent [still there, under different mgt.], Picwood, and the Mann Westwood and UA CInema Center) it is one of the few left. Even ACVO is a distant memory of what it once was.
I’ve been unable to discover who was the architect for the conversion of this building into a movie theater in 1970, but the building itself was designed by Russell E. Collins, and built for Ralphs Market in 1929. In 1988, the city of Los Angeles declared the building Historic Cultural Monument #360. In 1992, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Festival is a nice screen. I’m sure it won’t last forever, but it fits the Westwood Village mold perfectly, it is one of the last single screens in a world of “Monster-Plexes”.
In light of what is happening with the National, the Rialto and other single-screeners, I was a bit disappointed that the Cinematreasures are holding their meeting to discuss theatre preservation etc. at the brand-spanking-new Landmark 12!!! Less than 2 miles away from Westwood Village, the densest grouping of open single screeners in the country. Are they serious? Are they serious about preservation?
I expressed my disappointment here:
http://cinematreasures.org/news/17409_0_1_0_C/
Feel free to express your feelings as well.
Most theatre chains are good that way. If you complain, they’ll send you a couple free passes. I have always found the presentation at the Festival to be up to Mann’s Westwood standards. I wonder how long Mann will hold on to the Festival, being that their theatres are dropping like flies in Westwood. I think they would need to hold on to it for flexibility in bookings since they only have 3 screens left in Westwood.