Castro Theatre
429 Castro Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94114
429 Castro Street,
San Francisco,
CA
94114
75 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 185 comments
Photos of the Castro Theatre make it look so much larger than a 1500 seat house. It certainly is beautifully designed.
Loutheatres said, “…despite the controversy over Monga’s firing, they still do great programming.”
There was no “controversy”; Monga butted heads with the owners of the theater, and they let her go. The rumors that flew in the media came from a case of sour grapes, and other wild claims were unfounded. Monga recently worked with the Castro to present NOIR CITY 5 (she’s the programming director). So, I guess the “controversy” leveled at the theater was all for naught? Anyhow, the Castro Theatre is doing better than ever — and the last couple of times I was there, I wish I hadn’t dressed so warmly (since it was so crowded) it got stuffy.
Besides, lots of really progressive and interesting things are in store this year!
The Times write-up spotlights their wildly successful “Noir City†film festival, now in its fifth year and probably their biggest annual event (now playing through February 4th).
Here’s another excellent example of a restored old-time movie palace, serving up great classic cinema, to a large contemporary audience of enthusiastic and appreciative movie-going fans.
An amazing theatre, and despite the controversy over Monga’s firing, they still do great programming.
Like a lot of old movie palaces, the central heat/air leaves something to be desired. If its chilly (and in SF it can be chilly any time of the year) dress warmly.
I was being facetious August, by putting restoration in “ ”. I’m no expert but I would think (as a former painter) that a restoration would include first a good cleaning of the surface before putting on a preservative. As I said, I think they were in a hurry. The Castro is my neighborhood theatre and I feel lucky to be able to walk just a few blocks to see a film there. The multiplexes leave me cold also.
While that may be true, I have no reason to doubt your story, but I do doubt the story of the Blumenfeld’s painter. First, we would need to verify if this “restoration” actually occurred – otherwise, it is simply hearsay. But, with that being said, the Castro still stands head and shoulders above the sea of multiplexes in San Francisco – since all of the other “old time” theaters are rapidly disappearing, and soon, only the Castro will be left standing. We shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. But, rest assured, the Nassar family has great plans for maintenance and renovation for the old girl.
Don’t forget the Castro’s Halloween Horror Film Festival, SHOCK IT TO ME!, October 27-29 2006
http://www.myspace.com/shockit2me
In 1989 I worked for a local paint store. Blumenfeld Enterprises managed the theatre then and had an account with the paint store. After the 1989 Loma Preita earthquake the Castro closed for several months to patch up the damage. One of the Blumenfeld’s painters came in one day and bought all the shellac we had off the shelf and asked me to order another 10 gallons. When he came in to pick up the rest of his order several days later I asked him what he was doing with the shellac (noting that the Castro was listed as the job site). He said they were “restoring” the tented plaster ceiling. I asked him what they used to clean off the decades of nicotine and grease, he said they were just applying the shellac as ordered by the foreman. I told him that shellac darkens with age, did they think about that? He said they were in a hurry to finish the work so that the theatre could reopen. If anything in the Castro is “tarnished” it’s the tented ceiling. It has gotten much darket than it was before the “restoration” and details that were clearly visible and much lighter are now hidden.
The link to the Castro Theatre is dead, the current and correct link is http://www.castrotheatre.com
I wouldn’t say that the Castro Theatre is at all “tarnished”; I have spent a lot of time in this cinema as a fest producer/organizer, and on the contrary, the Castro is a very clean, well-kept venue. In the 1970s and 1980s I heard that it was becoming run down (I remember seeing SEVEN SAMURAI there in 1981/82 and don’t remember much about the theatre), but after 60 years, what wouldn’t be?
Conversely, in the last several years, having been there both day and night — for several days in a row — I haven’t experienced or seen anything that was falling apart or fraying around the edges. The Castro is a working theater, and to close it for that kind of extensive cleaning of the ceilings would be cost-prohibitive, to say the least. The cost of maintaining the archival projectors, alone, is astronomical. Keeping the films running and the sound system working, are probably the two elements that most patrons take for granted, but are the most important things to insure that any cinema stays open and viable.
With that being said, the Castro has already replaced all of the carpeting and many of the seats (all on the floor, and a majority of the balcony â€" some of the seats in the balcony were kept original to preserve the historic aspect). They are always looking at what needs to be done to improve the presentation of the films â€" which are always changing, sometimes from day to day â€" and how they can better serve their patrons. Expect some more improvements to the Castro over the next year.
Against common sense, I have spent a large portion of my life in San Francisco cinemas, from the industry screening rooms to fleabags like the defunct Strand — I’ve seen them all — and the Castro Theatre is hardly “tarnishedâ€. If people would like to see the theatre make better and more aggressive restoration, the best way they can do this is to patronize the Castro as often as possible. The more the theatre earns at the box office and concession, the more the Nassar family will invest back into their theater.
Oh, if only the Castro Theater could get the refurbishing it truly deserves. There is so much detail that could be restored – the ceiling alone would be worth cleaning and restoring. Probably decades of cigarette smoke has blackened it. It would probably take several million dollars to properly refurbish the place.
But even in its tarnished state, it remains a marvelous theater, one of the cultural gems of San Francisco. And you haven’t lived until you’ve seen the Wizard of Oz or some other movie loved by gay people there – the audience is just as much fun as the picture sometimes.
I love the Castro. There 3-D festival was cool. Hoping they might be able to show “Those Redheads from Seattle”, “Charge at Feather River” “Taza, Son of Cochise” in dual strip since they have recently been restored and will be shown at the upcoming 3-D Film Expo in September at the Egyption in Hollywood.
I do wish they had money to invest in a little clean up at the Castro. The spotlights projected into the auditorium during intermission are quite annoying very unflattering to what is a beautiful inerior and the ceiling design is almost unrecognizable at this point. I imagine any restoration work is probably unaffordable, sadly.
The Castro Theatre is magnificent, and as a SF native, I have gone there many, many times over the years. I will say that current Events Promoter/Producer Bill Longen obsesses over the prints they get, but sometimes distributors send garbage, and it’s too late. I was the programmer for both GODZILLAFEST and SHOCK IT TO ME! at the Castro Theatre, and while I worked with Anita on the former, both of them were easy to work with and very cool. We came to Anita with three days of Godzilla films, and she expanded it to five, then seven — even I thought that was crazy, but it worked and the show was a resounding success.
For SHOCK IT TO ME!, Bill was not only adamant about getting the best prints possible, as he is with everything they book for the theater, but also the best film selection possible. Sony’s print of THE COMEDY OF TERRORS was fading (it’s was all that was available), but the prints of HOUSE OF USHER and DR. PHIBES were STUNNING, as were the prints of VAMPIRE LOVERS, REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, CURSE OF THE DEMON and THE HAUNTING. You can’t expect perfection in 40 year-old Horror Films that the distributors hardly care about, but we got close.
Working together with us, Bill brought some great ideas to the table, and felt as though we were one big family. As a result, SHOCK IT TO ME! also was a success, and it was an absolute pleasure (and a privilege) to work with the staff and management of this great movie palace. I am looking forward to continuing for as long as they’ll have us.
Since he came aboard at the Castro, Bill has booked in some crazy stuff (and let us run amok, too) — was anyone there in the PACKED house for the colorized PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE screening recently? Yes, an Ed Wood film packed the 850-seat floor. Simply amazing what a little solid PR can do for an awful film. LOL. Believe me, it was a night that was hilarious and just felt damned good. I’d rather see programming like this, than anything in French — just kidding.
But, fear not (or maybe you should), there’s more cool programming in the pipeline (Bill is plotting and planning), and we are booking films (and guests) for the triumphant return of SHOCK IT TO ME! for the 2006 Halloween Season. Thanks for all those who attended last year, and those who left kind comments on this page. This year’s show will be bigger (two weekends) and twice as ugly! Thanks again and stay tuned…
¡Viva Castro Theatre!
This is the organist at the Castro. This might have been filmed on someones cell phone :)
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I’m so happy to say that I, too, was lucky enough to have a Castro experience all the way from Brooklyn ! I was visiting my sister in the ‘80s, and had never seen “Gilda” with Rita Hayworth, believe it or not. I got to see it, complete with organ serenade, and was happily dazzled !
I must say the Castro has given me the most AWESOME movie-going experiences in this city. Especially this past year! I heard of the programming upset behind the scenes some time ago, but to be honest, I go now more than ever before. I went to almost every film at the GODZILLA FEST. I basically set up house at the Castro even though I live nearby. Such a wonderful, fun experience. I enjoyed the 3-D fest and tried to go every night. The horror fest last year was GREAT as was their Halloween programming!!!!!! Whenever they play Hitchcock – I’m there. Recently they played some fun films like Xanadu and Skatetown USA. Very fun.
More upper-crust foreign fare and such were probably favored before, but I never went to see them (except for the Fellini films…I’m now a fan of his work). The programming now is really fun. I’ll take a Joan Crawford double feature or Vincent Price fest ANY DAY over the usual arthouse programming.
I LOVE THE CASTRO THEATRE!
Queer queues at the Castro:
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An undated photo:
http://206.103.49.193/sf/htm/sf004.htm
I went to just about every Saturday matinee at the Castro from about 1959-1962 or early ‘63. Why the heck not? It was only 20 cents to get in, and another 20 cents for popcorn AND soda. It was usually a double feature with a cartoon. At that time, it was a little run-down, but still impressive. I remember seeing “The Phantom of The Opera” ('62 version, Herbert Lom in maybe his only starring role?) and being a little nervous about that big chandelier.
If you haven’t already, go to the Castro Theatre website
http://www.thecastrotheatre.com
and click on the History section which has a few old and new photos.
Thanks Tom! What a gem, sure wish we had more like that in NY
Historic photos can be found at
View link
Click on Digitized Images by Subject, scroll down to Theaters, click on letter C, where there are about 8 historic photos. Not sure if there is an easy way to find current interior photos unless you want to email Bill Longen the programmer at BLCastroTheatre (at) aol.com
Are there any interior photos to be found?
recent photo:
http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf100.asp
All of these comments (above) should also be directed to Bill Longen, the new programmer at BLCastroTheatre (at) aol.com . . go to www.thecastrotheatre.com and click on Contact Us.
I would like to add to jackeboy’s comments: I too have noticed the quality of the prints going downhill. I have attended several screenings at the Castro within the last few months, and with each of them was something disappointing about the print and/or presentation. Namely, the 70mm festival. I saw “Tommy” there, which was not only totally faded, and worn, but just a useless, cropped print. It didn’t make any sense for the Castro to show this print, when there are FAR superior 35mm prints out there. I also saw the restored “Vertigo” as part of the festival, and having seen it at the Castro before in 70mm, this print was poorly presented with intermittent focus throughout. They also ran a poor quality, worn old print of “Psycho” earlier last month, which was the worst print I had ever seen of this film. I KNOW there are better prints out there currently. There definitely seems to be a lapse in print quality there, and though I am anticipating the 3-D festival, I am already skeptical. Does the Castro even have a silver screen for this?!