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mikejor
Guest
This is great to hear. Hopefully something can be done to save the Kingsway.
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Bogtrotter
Guest
That's great to hear. Watching movies in these smaller theatres is much more fun than the cineplexes.
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Observer Walt
Guest
This has just made my day. I was certainly disappointed when the Royal and three others closed last summer. I'll make a point of going again.
Absolutely!
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cdl42
Guest
The Royal always said that it was just closing temporarily for renovations. It was the others who unfortunately closed permanently. Man, what terrible losses we've had in this city for cinemas just in the past 5 years or so.
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Oliver Tweed
Guest
Just curious, how is it more fun?
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Bogtrotter
Guest
^ For me- I prefer the smaller intimate setting and the sense of nostalgia one gets from the older neighbourhood movie houses. It seems like more of a local gathering. I find the cineplexes to be loud, crowded and more impersonal. Although I must admit I do prefer the steeper seating grade of the new places.
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Greg29Toronto
Guest
REGAL REVIVAL
Back from the brink, venerable movie house The Royal gets a sonic restoration
BY ADAM NAYMAN
As anyone who has seen Night of the Living Dead can attest, the recently revivified are pretty much unmanageable without benefit of a pickaxe. But Stacey Donen, the director of programming for the newly renovated and reopened Royal theatre, is optimistic that the state-of-the-art facilities at his disposal could satisfy even the pickiest patrons - living or dead. "My hope," says Donen, "is that if Stanley Kubrick had a new film and screened it here, he'd say, ‘OK, it looks great.'"
Resurrection is the word of the day at the Royal. Six months ago, the almost-septuagenarian movie house's fate appeared to have been sealed. The decision by the Festival Cinemas Group to close the Royal - along with the similarly venerable Revue, Kingsway and Paradise cinemas - was another body blow to local film fans already staggered by the losses of neighbourhood theatres the Uptown and the Eglinton. Viewers in search of a non-multiplex movie-going experience were now surrounded on all sides by Silver
Cities (one centrally located exception being stalwart rep house the Bloor Cinema).
Then, in true classic-movie fashion, the cavalry came in - with mixing board and Christie digital projector in hand. Four years after revitalizing the Regent theatre on Mount Pleasant by equipping it with Dolby-boosted post-production facilities, the independent Toronto-based company Theatre D Digital purchased the Royal with a similarly ambitious plan. By day, the newly tricked-out space would be used to mix and edit feature films, television shows and commercials; at night, it would reopen as a refurbished repertory cinema. This vision will be realized on Dec. 15, when the Royal's curtain comes up on the exclusive local premiere of Reg Harkema's Monkey Warfare (see On Screen page 26).
"It was a real event to go to a film when this theatre opened in the 1930s," says Theatre D co-founder Dan Peel. "We're trying to take this place back to the glory it was in 1939."
Like all worthwhile endeavours, this one started from the ground up: the first thing the new owners did when they purchased the theatre for $2.2 million was to uncover the original terrazzo floors. The goal was to recapture a vintage art-deco aesthetic, but the process ended up being more evocative of the theatre's history than anyone could have imagined. Tucked away in a corner of the lobby, underneath the tile, was a block of cement bearing an intriguing imprimatur. "We found this signature in the concrete," says Peel, pointing to the spot beneath us. "It belongs to Anna Neagle, a British actor who dedicated the theatre when it opened in 1939. She signed her name in the floor." He points at an odd indentation beside the name. "She left her footprint, too."
The tiny, worn high-heel mark offers a lovely image of glories past, but the Royal's success will depend mostly on keeping an eye to the future. Peel notes that while the environs will be old school, the equipment therein couldn't be more cutting-edge. "I want to stress that when someone comes to the Royal, they're going to be watching films, on digital and in 35mm prints, in a professional sound environment," says Peel. "By calibrating this room and reaching Dolby 5.1 specs for mixing, the public has a treat. They're watching films inside a professional mixing studio. It will be far beyond what they're used to in a multiplex."
The same goes for the programming. Getting people to come to the gourmand's playground around College and Clinton isn't hard: the challenge is keeping them there after dinner for a movie. Donen, a former Toronto International Film Festival programmer who specialized in Canadian cinema, says that he's committed to screening as wide a variety of titles as possible. He cites Monkey Warfare (which was selected earlier this week as one of the TIFF Group's Canada's Top Ten for 2006) as a harbinger of eclectic things to come. "It's a perfect fit for us," he says. "We want to screen Canadian films and build an audience for them. Monkey Warfare is a film about Toronto - people who live down the street from the Royal were involved in making it. There's synchronicity there. It's also a very independently made film, and we want to be a very individualistic cinema."
Donen adds that he'd like to stretch his mandate to include musical, dance and multimedia presentations, as well as timely mini-retrospectives on important directors and actors, and high-end repertory fare. He's also looking to solicit suggestions and support from members of the Toronto film scene - less a case of calling in favours than piquing interest among a vital artistic fellowship. "We'd like the film community to be involved in this," he says. "We want to have filmmakers come as guests and speak about films they like, about what excites them. I don't just want a cinema here. I want the Royal to be a cultural hub."
Hubs don't round into shape overnight, of course: Donen knows that cultivating a loyal audience takes patience, time and word of mouth. The one thing he isn't worried about, though, is competing with the larger theatres. The way he sees it, the Royal is a sort of cinephile oasis at a time when movie-going has become tantamount to sensory assault. "Going to the movies has, for some reason, been made into something bigger - like there's more to it than just going to the movies. There's all this extra stuff. Our extra stuff is that the film sounds right and looks right and is presented in an atmosphere where it can be enjoyed.
"That's what it all comes back to," he says. "Just going out to the movies."
EMAIL LETTERS@EYEWEEKLY.COM
Back from the brink, venerable movie house The Royal gets a sonic restoration
BY ADAM NAYMAN
As anyone who has seen Night of the Living Dead can attest, the recently revivified are pretty much unmanageable without benefit of a pickaxe. But Stacey Donen, the director of programming for the newly renovated and reopened Royal theatre, is optimistic that the state-of-the-art facilities at his disposal could satisfy even the pickiest patrons - living or dead. "My hope," says Donen, "is that if Stanley Kubrick had a new film and screened it here, he'd say, ‘OK, it looks great.'"
Resurrection is the word of the day at the Royal. Six months ago, the almost-septuagenarian movie house's fate appeared to have been sealed. The decision by the Festival Cinemas Group to close the Royal - along with the similarly venerable Revue, Kingsway and Paradise cinemas - was another body blow to local film fans already staggered by the losses of neighbourhood theatres the Uptown and the Eglinton. Viewers in search of a non-multiplex movie-going experience were now surrounded on all sides by Silver
Cities (one centrally located exception being stalwart rep house the Bloor Cinema).
Then, in true classic-movie fashion, the cavalry came in - with mixing board and Christie digital projector in hand. Four years after revitalizing the Regent theatre on Mount Pleasant by equipping it with Dolby-boosted post-production facilities, the independent Toronto-based company Theatre D Digital purchased the Royal with a similarly ambitious plan. By day, the newly tricked-out space would be used to mix and edit feature films, television shows and commercials; at night, it would reopen as a refurbished repertory cinema. This vision will be realized on Dec. 15, when the Royal's curtain comes up on the exclusive local premiere of Reg Harkema's Monkey Warfare (see On Screen page 26).
"It was a real event to go to a film when this theatre opened in the 1930s," says Theatre D co-founder Dan Peel. "We're trying to take this place back to the glory it was in 1939."
Like all worthwhile endeavours, this one started from the ground up: the first thing the new owners did when they purchased the theatre for $2.2 million was to uncover the original terrazzo floors. The goal was to recapture a vintage art-deco aesthetic, but the process ended up being more evocative of the theatre's history than anyone could have imagined. Tucked away in a corner of the lobby, underneath the tile, was a block of cement bearing an intriguing imprimatur. "We found this signature in the concrete," says Peel, pointing to the spot beneath us. "It belongs to Anna Neagle, a British actor who dedicated the theatre when it opened in 1939. She signed her name in the floor." He points at an odd indentation beside the name. "She left her footprint, too."
The tiny, worn high-heel mark offers a lovely image of glories past, but the Royal's success will depend mostly on keeping an eye to the future. Peel notes that while the environs will be old school, the equipment therein couldn't be more cutting-edge. "I want to stress that when someone comes to the Royal, they're going to be watching films, on digital and in 35mm prints, in a professional sound environment," says Peel. "By calibrating this room and reaching Dolby 5.1 specs for mixing, the public has a treat. They're watching films inside a professional mixing studio. It will be far beyond what they're used to in a multiplex."
The same goes for the programming. Getting people to come to the gourmand's playground around College and Clinton isn't hard: the challenge is keeping them there after dinner for a movie. Donen, a former Toronto International Film Festival programmer who specialized in Canadian cinema, says that he's committed to screening as wide a variety of titles as possible. He cites Monkey Warfare (which was selected earlier this week as one of the TIFF Group's Canada's Top Ten for 2006) as a harbinger of eclectic things to come. "It's a perfect fit for us," he says. "We want to screen Canadian films and build an audience for them. Monkey Warfare is a film about Toronto - people who live down the street from the Royal were involved in making it. There's synchronicity there. It's also a very independently made film, and we want to be a very individualistic cinema."
Donen adds that he'd like to stretch his mandate to include musical, dance and multimedia presentations, as well as timely mini-retrospectives on important directors and actors, and high-end repertory fare. He's also looking to solicit suggestions and support from members of the Toronto film scene - less a case of calling in favours than piquing interest among a vital artistic fellowship. "We'd like the film community to be involved in this," he says. "We want to have filmmakers come as guests and speak about films they like, about what excites them. I don't just want a cinema here. I want the Royal to be a cultural hub."
Hubs don't round into shape overnight, of course: Donen knows that cultivating a loyal audience takes patience, time and word of mouth. The one thing he isn't worried about, though, is competing with the larger theatres. The way he sees it, the Royal is a sort of cinephile oasis at a time when movie-going has become tantamount to sensory assault. "Going to the movies has, for some reason, been made into something bigger - like there's more to it than just going to the movies. There's all this extra stuff. Our extra stuff is that the film sounds right and looks right and is presented in an atmosphere where it can be enjoyed.
"That's what it all comes back to," he says. "Just going out to the movies."
EMAIL LETTERS@EYEWEEKLY.COM
S
samsonyuen
Guest
Good news! I too like the atmosphere of an old cinema.