Cable Car Cinema & Cafe

A second-run art house with a funky atmosphere, couches in the auditorium. This unique theatre, carved out of a former garage, opened in the mid 70's and is very popular with Rhode Island School of Design students, since it is practically surrounded by the RISD campus. First run films are sometimes presented. There are sporadic special events, such as Brown University's annual French Film Festival. From 1981 to 1996 I ran the Italian Film Society of R.I. screenings in this theatre on weekend afternoons. The cafe' has some great food, coffee, and snack offerings. Sound is very good. The only complaint to offer, and I've offered it often, is that all films, regardless of how they have been made, are presented in a similar wide screen aspect ratio, about 1:1.85, including CinemaScope films which invariably have the sides cropped. Older Academy ratio films cannot be properly shown either with top or botton of frame sliced off.

According to the Web Site the address for this theatre should be 204 South Main, not 104.

The Cable Car Cinema is a SINGLE SCREEN THEATRE, NOT A TWIN. Above information should be corrected. The theatre seats 125.

I went here once back in the early eighties to see a flick called THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER on first run that starred Ann-Margret & Alan Bates. I remember the theatre as being kind of funky, but never did make it back there during my frequent trips back to Rhode Island.

Yes, it has funk coming out the wazoo. What it needs is better projection. I have never seen, in the nearly 30 years I've been going there, a film begin in frame and in focus. They start the picture, then spend 5-10 seconds to straighten it out. I know the theatre very well because, as I pointed out above, I used to rent the place for showings of Italian films over a period of 16 years. Last week I got asked by manager/owner Eric Bilodeau about some film and whether I recommended that he show it. (The six-hour Italian "The Best of Youth." I said yes.) I told him that I had seen "The Chorus" there, a CinemaScope ratio film. It was projected with the right and left side substantially cut off, as is their custom with anamorphic films. I've been trying to get them to outfit the theatre with correct lenses, aperture plates, screen to accomodate the various aspect ratios.

His response was "CinemaScope, Schminascope." He doesn't care, won't invest money in that. In all fairness, they do get some nice films here, often move-overs from the Avon but also first-run art house and independent films and they do some nice festivals in conjunction with Brown University and others. Brown uses the Cable Car because, shamefully, they have no 35mm capability or permanent facility! (Harvard has the fabulous state-of-the-art facility at Carpenter Center.)

There was a complete Todd Haynes retrospective a while ago, with the director, a Brown University graduate, on hand. ("I love the Cable Car Cinema," he said.) But aspect ratio they don't get or care about. Years ago director Lindsay Anderson visited the theatre to speak and show some of his early short films which were in old Academy ratio. He was appalled when they couldn't show them properly.

The bulk of their profits comes from the café, which is open all day and draws RISD students as faithful customers all the time. Bagels, roll-up sandwiches, espresso: yes, they care. Projection: they don't care. So frustrating. I will only see movies here if I can't see them anywhere else. And they don't have matinée prices or senior discounts. And I can get into the Avon, with its better projection, for free.

Here is a photograph of the Cable Car Cinema exterior.

For the record: across Power Street from the little Cable Car Cinema "block," on the same side of South Main Street, used to stand the Talma Theatre. The Talma was not a movie house, to my knowledge, but was used by The Players, a Providence theatre group, from 1909 until 1932, when they moved to the Barker Playhouse, converted from an old church, on Benefit and Transit Streets. The Talma was torn down and the spot is a parking lot. I believe the Talma may have been called the Lyceum at one time. The Barker Playhouse remains.

The magazine Entertainment Weekly has named the Cable Car Cinema one of the top ten theatres in the nation in its August 8, 2005 edition. It cites a variety of reasons. Here is a report from the Providence Journal.

Opening of the Cable Car Cinema

An article in the Providence Journal of September 16, 1976 reported the projected opening of the Cable Car that was set for October 20. The piece quoted a description of the new cinema by owner/creator Raymond Bilodeau as being a place of "rugged architecture and elegance." The place seems actually to have opened, quietly, around October 30, 1976 when the first feature shown was Luther, a film in the American Film Theatre series which had previously been shown in Rhode Island. The cinema, formerly a garage, was to have armchairs, love seats and sofas and a seating capacity of 130.

In fact, the theatre had a seating capacity that was more like 175 initially and was reduced to about 130 about fifteen years later when the place was modified to accomodate café tables to the right of the open projection booth and a kitchen was carved out of one of the former two bathrooms and part of the rear of the auditorium.

I saw "Luther" at the Cable Car Cinema on a Sunday afternoon. Being the first to arrive, I had to wait a while for the theater to open. Few people attended the matinee. I enjoyed the movie, but not the experience of sitting on a big sofa in a theater. Furthermore, the film print was a poor one. It displayed lines throughout the movie which, at times, was rather annoying.

On January 16, 1977 there was a short piece in the Providence Journal about Ray Bilodeau, who had recently opened the Cable Car Cinema less than three months before. In it Mr. Bilodeau complains about smallish audiences, losing money on the venture, even going broke, not being able to get films from some of the major distributors because of oppressive guarantees, and other problems.

It wasn't until well into the 1980s, under the ownership of his brother Al Bilodeau and subsequent management by Al's son and Ray's nephew Eric Bilodeau that the cinema began enjoying some apparent success, due in no small measure to the enormously profitable café portion of the cinema, which is open all day, even outside of film screening times and caters to the abundant number of students from RISD, which abuts the cinema-café. The café generates interest in the films; the films bring money to the café. In some ways this is not a cinema with a café but a café with a cinema. Which is just fine.

Before the building had been converted to a cinema in 1976, it had been vacant a bit after being the Burns Michael Trucking Company for several decades. The Providence City Directory lists 204 South Main Street under that business name way back to the 1930s.

Rhode Island has another cinema-café, the Revival House in Westerly. While it doesn't have theatre-type seating (or couches!) and employs DVD projection rather than 35mm like the Cable Car, it does have wider-ranging programs of new, old, and harder-to-see films. Check the Revival House page and their website.

What is odd is why this theatre has to be a second run art house considering the vast amount of features that are dumped into theatres each week. In NYC we get a double-digit number of new films opening each week. This week, according to today's Voice, 15 films are opening this week. I can't imagine that the bulk of these films that open in NYC even make it to Rhode Island. It seems with some intelligent programming there is a market niche to be exploited.

The do get some first-run films, generally of the off-beat type. Currently playing is a first run of Stay Until Tomorrow, made by local filmmaker Laura Colella. I plan to see it tonight. They showed the documentary Why We Fight as a Providence first-run. The French Film Festival, run here by Brown University, is a nice annual event. They are hosting part of the Latino Film Festival starring Friday. In the café they always have walls covered with posters of films that are presumably coming attractions. Some of them in fact never come. Entertainment Weekly last year named this one of the top ten theatres in the nation. But it does have a haphazard aura...part of its slovenly charm.

This is a recent photo of the Cable Car Cinema.

Here is a vintage photo of the Cable Car Cinema building when it was M. Burns Motor Transportation in 1962:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25521239@N06/2518212503/

ANY INTERIOR PICS??

Yes, go to http://www.flickr.com , enter "Cable Car Cinema" in search, and you will find a few. It's not much to look at inside.

Thanks for the fast responce......is this a flat floor auditorium?/

"....is this a flat floor auditorium?"

Almost. Very slight incline.

The Cable Car Cinema, now under new management, has recently had its auditorium refurbished. I peeked in at the spiffy new black couches and new theatre seats. Rather nice. Now if they would spend some additional money on a screen that can accomodate CinemaScope's 1:2.35 format for movies made in that ratio, and some adjustable masking, it would be a real advancement. Anamorphic wide screen films continue to be substantially cropped at the right and left edges in this cinema. For their opening post-remodeling presentation the theatre ran It's a Wonderful Life. The format was DVD projection!!!!! I was informed they couldn't get a 35mm print. Just as well, since the top and bottom of this 1:1.33 ratio film would have been cropped in the hopelessly untutored and destructive projection that reigns here. I hope the DVD wasn't colorized.