Comments from SethLewis

Showing 1 - 25 of 393 comments

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about UGC Grand Normandie on Mar 6, 2024 at 8:42 pm

A big loss if this is really closing in June 2024…A great place to see widescreen releases The Champs will seen no longer be a place to go to the movies which it so was historically

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Trans-Lux 85th Street Theatre on Apr 24, 2023 at 9:39 am

Saw Bullitt & Bonnie & Clyde double Secret of Santa Vittoria The Hot Rock (twice) and several others here throughout the 60s and 70s

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Sony Columbus Circle on Apr 23, 2023 at 5:55 pm

A class act of a theatre…Saw Little Big Man Murder on the Orient Express (Albert Finney) Eight Men Out The Manchurian Candidate (original re-issue) here

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Cinema 1, 2 & 3 by Angelika on Feb 20, 2023 at 1:15 pm

So much a part of my growing up on the UES I am guessing that the first picture I saw here was The Wrong Box in 1966…The strip from 55th St to 72nd St included the Eastside Cinema Sutton Trans-Lux East/Gotham PacificEast/Avco/59thSt 1&2/Manhattan 1&2/ Cine Malibu/D.W.Griffith / Baronet & Coronet / 68th St Playhouse / Loews Towe East - add in the Plaza & Fine Arts & Festival & Paris what choice we had in the 60’s and 70’s and even a good part of the 80s

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Cinema 1, 2 & 3 by Angelika on Feb 20, 2023 at 1:06 pm

Where is Searching for Mr. Rugoff streaming (ironic that a picture about a theatre operator should be reduced to streaming)?

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about UGC Cine Cite Les Halles on Jan 16, 2023 at 11:49 am

Showtimes from 9:00 am with a great mix of blockbusters and art house

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Cinepolis Chelsea Cinemas on Jan 5, 2023 at 11:56 am

This is really sad…Manhattan will be seriously under-screened soon.

I am old enough to remember Cavanagh’s - my dad oversaw it when Longchamps took it over in the 1970’s

This was a Cineplex Odeon new build that opened in 1989 and slick for its time. No screens now between Union Square and Penn Station?

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about UGC Danton on Sep 16, 2022 at 8:55 am

A handy old school 4 plex in the heart of what thank goodness is still a vibrant rich movie going area of Paris - with the Champs Elysees cinemas essentially gone

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Film Forum on Mar 31, 2022 at 3:04 pm

A terrific article about the Film Forum in the New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/t-magazine/film-forum-new-york-city.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=T%20Magazine

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Odeon Luxe London West End on Oct 17, 2021 at 2:48 pm

Without being churlish I would much rather see the Odeon Covent Garden restored with seats in the 100s and a good mix of English language and foreign films…Every screen does not need Bond or a horror or Marvel film

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Publicis Matignon on Mar 27, 2021 at 8:28 pm

A nicely designed modern cinema that was simply too far off the Champs-Elysees to have an impact. Used mostly for industry screenings after a certain time.

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about United Artists 64th & 2nd Avenue on Mar 4, 2021 at 10:50 am

Columbia put a couple of pictures in here on roadshows - Young Winston and Godspell

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Grande Taverne on Feb 27, 2021 at 1:43 pm

If I’m not mistaken the Hotel Terminus had running red wine in its rooms as a gimmick

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Empire Cinemas - London Haymarket on Feb 27, 2021 at 1:41 pm

Slightly under appreciated because of its location it will be great to have this back if the programming is differentiated enough from the other LS theatres…one of the few times I was stuck in the front row - opening weekend of Presumed Innocent it was actually survivable

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Goldman Theatre on Aug 26, 2020 at 6:05 pm

The Goldman on a side street could pretend to be a grindhouse…Shame that they treated the Regency on a main shopping street that way…Granted Philly residents at the time also could continue down Chestnut and have a great army & navy store and Zounds arcade

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Pathe Rialto on Aug 15, 2020 at 3:05 pm

Most of the programming in the early to mid-70s were spaghetti Westerns. As the public became more demanding the big screen was better used including Star Wars in the French version. The plexing was pretty good – sadly all the screens in the area – Central, Plaza, Broadway, Star are all gone and the only screens that I know of on this side of the river are the Pathe Balexert

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about UGC George V on Jun 20, 2020 at 11:03 am

Amazing history

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Napoleon on Jun 12, 2020 at 5:59 pm

This was a Disney showcase at the end of its run…after the Royale Madeleine Disney shut down

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about UGC George V on Jun 3, 2020 at 8:48 am

https://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/les-dessous-de-la-fermeture-surprise-du-cinema-ugc-george-v-sur-les-champs-elysees-20200602

The landlords see a hotel in the space’s future…not surprising the neigbourhood and the attraction for tourists…Heartbreaking that there will only be 5 theatres left on the Champs and side streets which once had 40 – the mainstream UGC Normandie in the middle and Gaumont at the Concorde end of the Champs, the Publicis near the Arc de Triomphe (which can probably accomodate one more screen and table service) & the arty Balzac and Lincoln

Still this had a great great run including the most screens on the Champs (almost always something worth seeing) 82 years!

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Odeon Whiteleys & The Lounge on May 31, 2020 at 3:58 pm

https://www.sixsenses.com/en/corporate/media-center/press-releases/2019/six-senses-london-to-open-in-the-former-art-deco-whiteleys-department-store

The Whiteley’s complex will be transformed into IHG’s Six Senses luxury wellness hotel brand…announced for 2023 but probably 2024 now

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Odeon Luxe London Leicester Square on May 11, 2020 at 4:02 pm

The bad news in all of this is that going to the cinema is like to be more expensive in the future with social distancing. The bad news is that studios are likely to only continue a me too strategy of superheroes and tentpoles. The good news is that that only companies with a reasonably low amount of debt will be around running cinemas – potentially more partnerships and tastemakers being involved. Love Netflix Love Prime but show me decent movies for adults in the cinema and I am there

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about AMC Lincoln Square 13 on Mar 30, 2020 at 8:44 am

Antoine Doinel I am guessing was named for Truffaut’s iconic character…wow!

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Odeon Whiteleys & The Lounge on Mar 14, 2020 at 5:43 pm

UCI’s operations had a bit of quirkiness that Odeon’s didn’t. A letterboard promising releases well into the future – 2-3 years and a sense that even ordinary releases felt like events – it may be that the movies we saw there back in the early to mid 90’s felt like that too…Speed Hoffa A Few Good Men Mrs Doubtfire The Addams Family Batman Returns The Player Woody Allen’s Husbands & Wives Speed Clear & Present Danger Insomnia 12 Days The Pledge True Lies The Lion King Guilty by Suspicion Hannibal Gosford Park and probably several more that I am omitting…Imagine Robert Altman in our multiplexes today Loved walking through Hyde Park to get there. Loved taking my mom and my wife to movies there and loved the New Kam Tong Chinese restaurant (still there)

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Uptown Theatre on Mar 14, 2020 at 10:18 am

Saw 12 Monkeys here with a nearly full house on the Saturday night after the 1997 blizzard…people were desperate to go out. Great Chinese restaurant next door – sizzling rice soup! Also saw American President and Twister here with decent crowds

SethLewis
SethLewis commented about Uptown Theatre on Mar 13, 2020 at 9:12 pm

A huge shame…a great place to see a movie