Cinema Village

I ran this theatre for awhile in the eighties and it truly envoked the feel of Greenwich Village. At that time we were going back and forth between revival and off-beat independant films. It was not unusual to see celebraties on line or in the audience. I recall Richard Gere coming one night and Ronnie Spector another. It is great it is still here when all the other village theatres dies slow sad deaths.

One thing I forgot to add the building was originally a firehouse.

The theatre opened in 1963. Total seating for the 3 auditoriums is 310.

This is where I saw Chow Yun Fat for the first time in film and in person. I saw "Hard Boiled" with "The Killer" in a double feature that changed my life and made me want to go into film. This theater was known to show many a Hong kong Retrospective before they went Art House 100%. I also saw Chow Yun Fat there when they gave one of his retrospectives there in 1996. I got his autograph and we spoke about his American Debut in "The Replacement Killers". The last film I saw there was the controversial French Rape Film "Baise Moi" about two or three years ago.

In December of 1972 this theater programmed "The Genesis Children," a controversial movie about nude boys frolicking on a European beach. I believe that the cinema was programmed for a time in the 1980s by the late Richard Schwartz, who had also programmed the Thalia (uptown) and Thalia Soho with frequently-changing repertory double bills.

Just saw the thoroughly traumatizing "Time of the Wolf" there a few days ago. Whew, it's not exactly the feel-good movie of the year but it is high quality, and it reaches you and shakes you up badly, which is its intention. The theatre I saw it in was quite small with a smallish screen but that somehow **felt** kind of like a full-sized one in an odd way. I like this theatre and I'm quite glad it that it continues to be open. I'm making a point of returning to see "Bukowski" the day after tomorrow if they're still running it.

Camden

The owner of the Cinema Village also owns the Cinemart Cinemas in Forest Hills.

i think they also own the kew garden cinemas,also in queens

No, the Kew Gardens has a different owner.

I used to go to this theatre when I was stationed in New York in the late 1970s early 1980s. I was a big movie buff back then. They used to highlight directors and their movies. I saw Taxi Driver/Mean Streets one night and a couple of Terence Malick movies on another day. Boy, I have not been to NYC in 20 years. Heard that Times square is all cleaned up. I could tell you some stories about my young single days in NYC.

Taxi Driver/Mean Streets was a revival staple here. We played it at least twice a year and it always filled the house.

Robert,
You guys ran a great theatre. I remember the waiting in small lobby before the auidence left. Nice looking bunch of people used to go to this theatre. I used to get off at the Christopher street station and walk to the Threatre. On 8th street there was a threatre that always had the Rocky Horror Picture show playing. Pick up a slice of Pizza at Ben's.

Thanks Tony
Remember also in the lobby we had the podium where you could write film reqests? The downstairs which is now a theatre was where the candy stand was and all the little tables and chairs.

Robert,
You sure sound like you were very proud of the Theatre. Before videos your theatre was the only place I knew in NYC that played a lot of the movies I liked. Technology is great, but I sure miss all of the old theatres. I grew up in Philadelphia and remember other theaters on this website I used to go as a kid, Alden and Cambria. I now live outside of Baltimore MD. Did you stay in NYC and the movie business?

I left the business in 1995 but have stayed connected through alot of friends I made in the business over the years. I ran the Cinema Village on and off for a few months at a time over the years. I was mainly operating the theatres we used to have in Queens. I did also run the DW Griffith and the Columbia also.

From the Cinema Village web site:

Build in 1963 in the shell of a turn of the century fire station, Cinema Village is the oldest continuously operated cinema in Greenwich Village and one of the oldest continuously operated art cinemas in the city.

Through most of it's first three decades of life Cinema Village was one of Manhattan's several repertory cinemas. Showcasing a canon of vintage classics, cult and contemporary critical favorites on double bills that would usually change three times a week, this once essential programming format has now largely died out in commercial cinemas in the city and around the country. Before the video revolution, short of a private film collection, going to a repertory cinema was virtually the only way to see many films after their initial theatrical run. Rep houses like Cinema Village, the recently re-opened Thalia and the now long closed Bleeker Street, Carnegie Hall, 8th Street Playhouse and Regency were the autodidacts' film school and favorite haunts of cineastes for decades.

Undermined by home video, buy outs by major circuits and real estate development, commercial repertory cinema virtually disappeared in the city by the late 1980's. Cinema Village only escaped closing and survived with a switch to limited engagements of highly alternative first run programming.

This resulted in an eclectic mix of slip through-the-cracks American indie sleepers (Red Rock West), the occasional revival (In the Realm of the Senses, Two Lane Blacktop, The Leopard), documentaries (Theremin, Waco: Rules of Engagement, Kurt & Courtney), festivals, animation compilations, Japanese cult cinema (Tokyo Decadence, Angel Dust, Ghost in the Shell) and heavy doses of Hong Kong cinema.

In the early nineties before Jackie Chan, John Woo, Michele Yeoh and their stunt coordinators went Hollywood, Cinema Village became known, through its annual festivals and other bookings, as the place to see the amazing Hong Kong films of what would soon to acknowledged as a filmmaking golden age. For filmgoers who never ventured to Chinatown or had only seen blurry bootleg videos, these films were a revelation and they would soon have a profound influence on international filmmaking styles. During this period we also had the privilege of playing host to personal appearances by talents such as Michele Yeoh, Chow Yun Fat, Wong Kar Wai and Peter Chan.

In 2000 our patron's support was rewarded with a long deferred renovation and expansion of screens. When we reopened, we had transformed ourselves into a thoroughly modern three screen facility with state of the presentation. Our additional screens allow an even more diverse programming mix and permit us to extend runs of special films to extraordinary lengths (Mulholland Drive: 18 weeks; Yi Yi: 21 weeks; The Piano Teacher: 28 weeks).

In 2001 we quietly introduced digital video projection capabilities to accommodate the increasing reliance on digital video by independent productions. This now gives us the potential to play deserving features without the burden to distributors or filmmakers of an expensive conversion to celluloid.

Nearing its fourth decade, Cinema Village is proud of its longevity and thankful to have survived the pitfalls that have taken down so many other independent cinemas. Notwithstanding our resourcefulness, our ability to survive is testimony entirely to the New York City audience. We could probably only exist where we are: in the midst of most diverse, cosmopolitan and cine-aware of cities.

Auditoriums
Screen #1
capacity: 170 seats
projection: 35 mm, 16 mm, digital video
sound: Dolby Digital CP500

Screen #2
capacity: 67 seats
projection: 35 mm, 16 mm, digital video
sound: Dolby Surround CP45

Screen #3
capacity: 73 seats
projection: 35 mm
sound: Dolby Surround CP45

I attended repertory screenings at Cinema Village throughout the seventies. Although it had a relatively small screen compared to the Elgin Cinema and Regency, they did play some great titles.
The biggest surprise was a showing of "The Wild Bunch". The Pekinpah classic had played most of the revival cinemas in the standard cut 135 minute version. Then to my surprise and un-announced, Cinema Village played an uncut 2 hour and 25 minute version with all of the missing flashbacks. I had heard about the deleted scenes but it was the first time I'd seen them. The print was mint in Technicolor, possibly a studio vault print that the theater was unaware they were getting. Anyway, it was a great show. It's always a thrill to see 'lost' footage (for the era anyway) for the first time.

I worked at Cinema Village at the time that photograph was taken (I may even be one of the silhouettes in the doorway), and I worked there for a good five months or more. I have somewhat of a sentimental attachment to the place, I guess, and I return to it every time I visit NYC.

I saw a film at Cinema Village the very night I moved to NYC. 'Himalaya,' one I'd wanted to see but which had not opened in my previous home of South FL. I went back a day later to see 'Thomas in Love,' and then a day or so later to see 'The River.' Cinema Village is independently programmed and it shows. Programmed by the founder of Empire Pictures, the features are hand-picked and the programming deliciously quirky in a way that the programming at the Angelika and the CC Village East is not. The lobby is unpretentious, too, unlike that for the Quad. So, you get the best of both worlds and cozy comfort to boot, the kind of comfort that's hard to come by in Manhattan.

There's a large 170-seat theater, and two smaller theaters, the "attic" and the "basement" houses, respectively seating 67 and 73 people. The desired location is the 170-theater, of course, which features remarkably crisp and powerful Dolby Digital sound. The other theater houses, though, are cozy enough, and the lobby -- while tiny -- is the right size to be completely hijacked by the smell and sound of popping popcorn. Purchasing a bag will be hard to resist.

Cinema Village was the only theater in the country, I believe, to show 'Ginger Snaps,' and plays a lot of other stuff exclusively, making it a singular venue. Employees are well-chosen, too (I speak from a not entirely objective position!), while the same cannot be said for the City Cinemas venues or even the Quad.

I've been a regular patron of the Cinema Village since I moved to NYC in '82. I do remember that mix of first run and revivals in the 80s. I remember seeing "Das Boot" there for the first time and after the film felt like I'd been in the sub for two hours. I remember sitting through the very weird "Cop Killer," which starred Harvey Keitel and Johnny Rotton from the Sex Pistols.

In fact, I'll be there tonight for the last showing of "16 Years of Alcohol" before it heads off to videoland.

One other question regarding Cinema Village. Back in the 1980s, for a brief period (probably months) didn't CV run an offshoot theatre on Third Avenue around 11th or 12th Streets? It was on the west side of the street, just above where the Loew's Multi-plex now stands. I remember seeing Nick Roeg's "Don't Look Now" there. It wasn't open long and then I think became some sort of pornographic house and now is something else.

While I'm glad that Cinema Village is still functioning I really do miss, and have missed for years, their revival program. From around '86 until they ended the revivals, I was there all the time. I had so many great movie-going experiences there, and it wasn't always about the movie itself. The place had a real moody feel, and it was so cool to go there when there was a relatively small crowd that always included some real existential freaks. I loved it. The first double bill I saw there was 'Atomic Cafe' and a really weird Czech film called 'WR: Mysteries of the Organism". My mind was blown to smithereeens it was so cool.

Among other films I also remember seeing there were Nic Roeg's director's cut of 'The Man Who Fell To Earth" with David Bowie. So amazing. I also saw '2001: A Space Odyssey' there and a rat ran up the center aisle while the movie was going. Nobody screamed. I saw a really bad David Niven film called 'King, Queen, Nave". It was so bad, but I didn't care, I was at Cinema Village in that weird environment. I also remember seeing a double bill of Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits' & "Satyricon". It was like I spent a whole day in the place.

Since CV is now split into 3 theaters, I think they should consider bringing back film revival in at least one of the theaters. It would be great if the revival program was ongoing, but if they did it once or a few times a month it would be a welcome addition to what they are doing now.

Hey Hardbop-

You're right. CV was on Third Ave. briefly, but I think it was in the early 90s. I never ended up going there when it was in that location, but I did sail by there the other day and was reminded that it existed there for a short time. I can't remember what's there now, if anything in fact is there at all. It's close to that bar called Bar None, which was also known as The Space At Chase back in the day. I wondering though, was this always a theater even before CV had relocated there?

Ah yes.. 'Don't Look Now'. That's a good one. I think I saw that at the Thalia Soho way back. If you want to see another great Julie Christie/Nic Roeg collaboration check out 'Petulia' if you haven't yet. It's actually directed by Richard Lester, but a strong presence from Roeg as DP, and he DPs the hell out of it. Amazing compositions and camera work all around. I saw it for the first time almost 20 years ago, and I think I can still say that it's probably my all-time fave film.

I really don't understand you guys getting all gushy about this lousy theatre. The only reason I attend this place is because I'm able to watch films there for free. Otherwise I'd stay away! Sorry but the projection is horrible in the two small theatres and NO STEREO SOUND! Big time keystoneing in the attic auditorium. Cloudy picture in the basement. No stadium seating on the main theatre. It's time someone build another state-of-the-art indie theatre. PLEASE!!!

Celluloid Freak-

This blog is partially about the old days of CV when it was a single screen theater, if you missed the boat on that too bad. Believe it or not, it was cooler than anything that we might find 'state-of-the-art' these days. And speaking of art, what does your criticism have to do with that anyway? Sounds like your more interested in hotel accomodations not movie-going. Whining about, of all things, stadium seating? You must be joking, right?

Maybe a little spoiled and born in the 80s are we..hmmm?

Some great double features there in the heyday. Down by Law and She's Gotta Have It on one bill. Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqatsi, so packed we had to sit on the stairs. A Face in the Crowd and Sterile Cuckoo. Used to love those double-faced flyers with all the upcoming double features.

Irv,
More about the history of Cinema Village's Third Avenue outpoust here:

http://cinematreasures.org/theater/8371/

Christmas of 1968
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/WestSideStory1968re-issue.jpg

Some recent pics
http://andrewweb.merelis.com:3500/05_MAY_03/05_27_03/05_27_03.html

The C.V. on a site from Taiwan
http://movie.cca.gov.tw/CINEMA/applivation_01_01.asp?rowid=43

Christmas of 1970 the C.V. joined a neighborhood run of "Lovers & Other Strangers"
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/LoversOtherStrangers.jpg

Saw 'Pink Flamingos' here.

A nightshot photograph here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10179k79/45301925/

Cannot recall whether I was at CV once or twice in its pre-triplex days. I did see "Hard Boiled" there in '93, and remember feeling a little disoriented when I left the theatre, on account of 12th Street seeming so peaceful after the big hospital shootout that concludes the movie. I half expected that the mayhem onscreen would have somehow carried over outside the theatre! Few movies have had that kind of lingering aftereffect on me, and I give some credit to the theatre itself, an environment that lended itself to involvement. In a similar Hong Kong vein, I may have also seen a fairly obscure Jackie Chan sequel at CV ("Police Story 2") that predated Chan's mainstream Hollywood success. Can anybody corroborate that the Chan flick played there sometime in '93?

Paul
As soon as I have a chance I can check my records. I have them up to 1995.

No, I'm with the guy who is complaining about the projection. I mean, the movie selection is great, but have you tried seeing a movie in the "attic"? Forget about sitting in the last row. You'll strain your neck trying to watch.

Here is another photo of the Cinema Village.

Marquee appears early on in the movie "Prime". Not sure if the interior scenes were filmed here.

The Cinema Village marquee appears in this recent 2006 photo.

I worked across the street from Cinema Village from 1980-84 when Fairchild Publications owned the 7E 12 St. building (it's now owned by NYU). I remember going to see "Dr. Strangelove" there. These kinds of theaters are now so rare and so important to maintain. If New York can't support indie houses, which city will?

The distinctive neon lettering on the marquee of the Cinema Village is replicated to this day in newspaper advertisements for the theater's offerings (although not in the individual movie ads themselves).

Anyway, I'm trying to ascertain if this is the theater where my father once took me to see The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour." I was a huge Beatles fan when I was a kid (still am, but not quite as obssessed) and had heard so much about the existence of that made-for-British-TV special that I just had to see it when I saw it listed in the newspapers in early January of 1978. The thing is, the film was on a triple bill with the Rolling Stones in "Sympathy for the Devil" and Grand Funk Railroad in "We're an American Band." That became problematic when we arrived to the theater late for the Beatles' film and I wanted to stay around after the other two flicks to catch what I had missed. So, there we sat in the theater's balcony after "Mystery Tour" had ended.

The "American Band" film was actually a mercifully short documentary about Grand Funk Railroad that - looking back - had the feel of a industrial film. Almost like a corporate film short explaining the nature of a particular company's business and recapping their accomplishments to date and future goals. I was bored silly - I can only imagine how my father felt.

Next up, the Rolling Stones. Only, the film wasn't a documentary about the Stones... it wasn't even a concert film. "Sympathy for the Devil" was the USA distribution version of a highly didactic and political bit of avant-garde filmaking called "One Plus One" by the French new wave director Jean Luc Godard. I could barely stand Godard's polemics when I studied his films in college - at the age of 12, the film was an absolute nightmare to sit through. Even the clips that did feature the Stones recording the title track seemed disjointed and uninteresting in the context of the whole feature. About 30 minutes in - after much shifting in his chair and loud sighs of frustration - my Dad had finally had enough and annoucned that we were getting the hell out of there. As much as I wanted to catch the beginning of "Magical Mystery Tour", I must say that I did not put up much of a fight.

I found some old Weekend Movie Clocks on the Times' online archive and it seems that (a) this theater did play "Sympathy for the Devil" at some point in the late '70's (though with a different co-feature) and (b) about the time I remember seeing these films, it appears as though the theater was beginnig a series of rock-and-roll related films (though I can not confirm that this particular triple bill ever played there) the week of January 6th or 7th, 1978. The theater I was in definitely had a balcony and seemed a lot larger than the seat counts discussed above. When this was a single screen, was there a balcony? If not, the search goes on.

This is a recent night view of the Cinema Village.

Does anybody know much about the Cinema Village East. It was in the paper one week. Where is it located exactly? I si t showing first run films?

Mike...Do you mean the Village East Cinemas which is already listed on CT?

Ed: Where did you find the weekend movie clocks on NY Times online? Is that a special pay service? I have a free account with them and I accessed the movie reviews archive, but I haven't seen any actual movie ads or movie clocks. Thanks in advance!

I have a similar Magical Mystery Tour story. 1974, The Park Theater in Caldwell, NJ : My friends and I came in about 20 minutes late so, after the co-feature Yellow Submarine, I was all set to see what I had missed. But the friend who had driven us there insisted on leaving because he had to be home by a certain time. We fought about it all the way home.

Bill... I simply did a search on the NY Times site for "weekend movie clock," using the "1851-1980" option and a great number of results came back predominantly (if not all) from 1976-1980. The results are all in "pdf" format. I also have a free online account, but I do have a home delivery subscription for the weekend. That grants me access to the "Times Select" program which allows me to access up to 100 archived articles per month that would otherwise be pay-per-item. I believe the movie clocks fall into the "Times Select" category. Even without the subscription, however, you should still be able to see a listing of all the results of an archive search.

There are no archived movie ads that I have found on the Times site, just to be clear.

Anyway... I'm still not convinced this was the theater where I caught my "Magical Mystery Tour" triple feature, because I'm not sure there was ever a balcony here.

Thank you, Ed. It was Times Select, like you said. Guess I'll be back to the microfilm machine before too long (I do enjoy doing that, though).

Lost Memory
No it wasn't Village East. It was Cinema Village East and the address looked like it was on the upper east side maybe around the 50's. MAybe it was a misprint in the paper.

If the words "Village East" were associated with an address in the 50's, that would definitely be a misprint. The Village - either East or West - runs below 14th Street... if in fact they are referring to Greenwich Village.

The ad could have been worded wrong. As an example, look at this link. It reads "City Cinema Village East" but it is really the Village East Cinemas at 181 Second Avenue.

This is a 2007 photo of the Cinema Village.

City Cinema is the chain name.

In the late seventies/early eighties you would have found TRANS-LUX EAST, PENTHOUSE EAST, LIDO EAST, 59th St. EAST, EASTWORLD, ART EAST, TOWER EAST, UA EAST, and 86TH St. EAST. MAD Magazine ran spoof movie ads that looked like the real thing.

Chances are, if the word Village was anywhere on the page you would find a link in the NYT with CINEMA and EAST.

This is a recent view of the Cinema Village marquee.

Irv, I feel just as you do. I miss the days of Cinema Village revivals. I saw classic films like BREATHLESS, the original Japanese version of GODZILLA, Fellini's 8 1/2 and a festival of Bugs Bunny cartoons!

I loved Cinema Village and went there often during the 1980s. A friend of mine, Alan Shaw, and his boyfriend, Gabriel Garza (anyone know what's become of them?), used to run the projectors, and Gabriel would often let me sneak into the projection booth and hang out. I loved the double-features, and the staff was always wonderful. I returned in 2003, where I saw the filmed version of "Reno: Rebel with a Cause," Reno's hilarious account of her 9/11 experiences. Great to see it's still there, as so many of the theaters I frequented in the 1980s are gone.

Information needs to be updated. This is no longer part of the City Cinema Chain. To my knowledge I can't rememebr when it ever was.

I don't think it ever was either.

I think there's been some confusion with the Village East Cinemas, which ARE part of City Cinemas.

Here is another recent photo.

A 2008 close-up view can be seen here.

The Cinema Village opened on October 5, 1964 with Ingmar Bergman's "All These Women", not 1963 as previously stated.

Like the Quad, it spent much of the late seventies blurring the lines between porn and arthouse.

It is operating as a twin in January 1999 and a triplex by March 1999.

My brother is looking to open movie theater in Ethiopia at small town, can anyone advice me, how much it cost to open small theater, for just one projector and one screen, he already has a big building. For about maximum of 200 people seat. I read some comments here about digital or 35 mm system, but I don't know which one will be good for him, any advices? Since he may not have a good technician there, I was thinking digital, but the cost of bulb is too high, any one recommends me good digital with cheap bulb. Thanks.

The type of 1970's feature that AlAlvarez talks about 2 posts up
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/SaturdayNightatBaths.jpg

does anyone know who the current owners of Cinema Village are?

I believe the same people who owns the Cinemart Cinemas in Forrest Hills, Queens.

but do you know their names?

Clarice, why not use this form on their website and ask the management directly?

i found it. Thanks anyway

Here is another photo.

Renewing link.

The year given for this photo is 1986.

Love this theater. I remember in the 70's they had $1.99 bargain matinees. I saw Warhol's Frankenstein and Dracula that way. I was 18 and thought I was so totally hip seeing Warhol films in the village, lol. And of course the countless times I saw midnight screenings of Pink Flamingos.

Photo of the Cinema Village courtesy of Nick's Classic American Theatres.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s254/Pavy1/Cinema.jpg

This theatre deserves a richer intro when you consider the history it has created and the contributions above...