LOGAN SQUARE — A beloved institution in the Chicago arts scene, the local independent movie theater of northwest Chicago recently doubled down on their stance of showcasing powerful, challenging auteur cinema up to one times a week on their screens.
“Now, more than ever, is the time to embrace art that makes us question what it means to be human and living in the world,” said owner Patrice Antonopoulos, 63. “And we’re proud to be an institution dedicated to celebrating those hard questions and the art that arose from them.” The theater, currently screening a 2004 horror movie about the internet on one screen and Frozen 2 on the other five, is hailed as a trailblazer in the Chicago arts community.
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Keeping ticket sales up hasn’t always been easy, Antonopoulos readily admits. “People would rather stay at home and kiss each other than stare at a wall of pictures,” she complained. “Even when those pictures are of a blonde ice princess who is full of magic. So that can be a challenge.” But cost-saving measures such as scaling back on impulse EBay purchases of vintage tripods and using candles after dark have kept them in the green. “Selling $8 beers helps too,” Antonopolous added with a generous wink, before tripping over a spike-foot tripod holding a candelabra in the pitch black foyer.
Once a month, local film societies host screenings of little-seen cinematic gems from the past. Lovingly nestled between back-to-back showings of 21 Bridges, the screenings begin with three half-hour speeches by members and are capped off with a Q and A with the audience member who liked the movie best.
“I just feel so consistently grateful to this theater for teaching me everything I ever needed to know about film,” gushed Tim Berryman, 25, a frequent film-goer. “When I was younger, I used to think that good cinema was just the least-scratched up DVD you could steal from the RedBox outside Jewel while your mom’s inside bartering for crab meat. Then I started coming here, and everything changed. Now, I can name the whole cast of Ford v Ferrari if you give me a few minutes to prep.” A regular, Berryman can often be found hovering in the lobby next to a large fern, looking pale.
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For now, the theater is trucking onwards, thanks to a flock of dedicated regulars and a healthy amount of tax fraud. A screening of Hitchcock’s 1946 classic Hitchcock will be playing in two weeks at midnight, and viewers are welcome to stay and chat about the film afterwards. “They’ve got until 3 AM, then the sprinklers come on,” said Antonopoulos. “I’ll have to be up early to take it off the marquee the next morning.”
