Horror upon horrors! No one ever tells me shit around here.
I walked out of the metro at Dupont and took the "south" entrance, which is further from home than the Q Street "north" entrance but provides a little more entertainment.... I could make my leisurely walk past the cineplex at Dupont to see what was playing, maybe take a quick peak in Olsson's Books, and stroll through the ever titillating Dupont Circle to see what the dudes were up to.
Understand my utter shock, walking up the escalator stairs to the blinding midday light, my retinas finally contracting enough to make out images and details after a few steps down 19th street. And there it was.
Empty. Abandoned. I thought I had walked out of the wrong metro stop for a split second and was about to turn around. But it was real and constant. The familiar cineplex--the Dupont 5--the mistress of my midday affairs, without movie posters, the word "CLOSED" unceremoniously written out on the marquee, and foul little orange signs on the windows saying something polite and infuriating.
How did this happen? Is this for real? Why didn't I hear about this, why were there no protests, why does God hate me? Have I really not walked past the theater since January 13th? I watch movies here! Can we really take another blemish on the deteriorating, conquered callous that is the independent art scene in Dupont Circle?
Sure, the screens were miniature, the seats were short and cramped, I felt way too close to the runny nosed guy next to me, and the toilets could hold only two smelly people at a time. But I endured! I watched plenty of movies there because it was convenient, had small-time flicks, and it was local and mine.
This is the second theater to close in Dupont since I've moved here in early 2004. Visions Bar Noir, a fantastic though poorly executed cinema, bit the big one later that fall. (Sure, they could have reduced their filth quotient by a tad, offered more "Brown Bunny" and less "Monty Python" and replaced the surly staff, bit it wasn't so bad....)
In fact, after some further investigation, I found there was quite a lively art-house scene in Dupont circle in the late nineties. At least three theaters could offer off-beat, art house selections in the neighborhood: the Dupont 5, Janus 3 - which had a film club and midnight showings- and Embassy Circle, the precursor to Visions. Add to that two very popular houses in Georgetown, the Key Theatre and the Biograph Theatre on M Street, which focused on classic and foreign films, including Keislowski's Blue and plenty of Goddard. Amazingly, all of these, plus a few others--Outer Circle on Wisconsin, the Inner Circle on M street, the Foundry-- closed between 1996 and 2004 with the exception of Dupont 5. Key Theatre became Restoration Hardward on Wisconsin and the Biograph is now the unflattering CVS on M Street. Visions replaced Embassy Circle in 2001 to only to perish three years later.
To make matters worse, these were the last of the independently-owned theaters. A few were bought up by chains -- Cineplex Odean, Loews-- that were later bought up by even bigger chains--Landmark and AMC. Landmark's E Street Cinema, although indy in concept, ate up the independent competition. Now we're reduced to fight for a small movie houses even if it's corporate-owned, such as Dupont 5, property of AMC when it closed. But there is one more. The Uptown.
AMC owns the Georgetown 14, the lush Mazza Gallerie 7, Shirlington 7, the Uptown and others. No doubt AMC is moving from smaller movie houses to large multiplexes, as is the growing trend. The average AMC theater has 14 screens these days, a far cry from the 5 at Dupont and the one--ONE!-- at the Uptown.
What does this mean for the Uptown? Is it next? Can we really be forced into these vapid, overly-equiped mega-theaters? It's bad enough we have only theater chains to chose from but now we have to pack into shopping centers and distant neighborhoods without metro access.
Doesn't anyone else feel like there should be some serious hell to pay? I hope all you slackers are with me.
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