Last night I went to the Mayfair for a double bill for the first time a few years, and was reminded of how this unassuming (yet elegant) little gem of a theatre embodies the true spirit of cinema. The Mayfair opened its doors in 1932 as a simple neighborhood theatre, but for those of us acclimatized to the big box megaplexes out in suburbia, it now stands as an ornate little shrine to everything that used to be good about going to the movies. And like any other shrine, a visit to the Mayfair deserves a moment of contemplation before the ceremony begins. For me that involves simply admiring the classical interior design and meditating on how much of cinema’s history has been projected onto the screen, which would include just about every film from the Great Depression through to the War on Terror and beyond. For the true cinephile, this is nothing less than magical.
Last night I went to the Mayfair for a double bill for the first time a few years, and was reminded of how this unassuming (yet elegant) little gem of a theatre embodies the true spirit of cinema. The Mayfair opened its doors in 1932 as a simple neighborhood theatre, but for those of us acclimatized to the big box megaplexes out in suburbia, it now stands as an ornate little shrine to everything that used to be good about going to the movies. And like any other shrine, a visit to the Mayfair deserves a moment of contemplation before the ceremony begins. For me that involves simply admiring the classical interior design and meditating on how much of cinema’s history has been projected onto the screen, which would include just about every film from the Great Depression through to the War on Terror and beyond. For the true cinephile, this is nothing less than magical.