October 1, 1981
emerald arts & entertainment supplement
although Eugene could never be mistaken as a Mecca for
movie-nuts, it does offer quite a variety of movies and
theaters. From the high-tech plastic world of the modern
quads and twins to the simple quaintness of a theater
housed in an old funeral home, Eugene movie houses vary
in style, price and quality
With ticket prices pushing four dollars at many theaters in
the area, it now pays to know what you’re getting into before you
plunk your dough on the counter and the machine spits those
expensive tickets back at you.
Half of the struggle is to find a good movie — the other half is
to find a good theater While a nice theater may not improve a
bad flick, a bad theater will certainly detract from an otherwise
pleasant movie experience.
Thus, in a fit of benevolence, distractions guides you
through the world of walk in theaters in the Eugene-Springfield
area
The Bijou
The Bijou
492 E. 13th Ave.
Admission: $2.50; $2 Monday with
University I.D.
Midnight: $2.50 Friday and Saturday,
$1.50 Thursday.
The Bijou is housed in the old Will
cox Building, which was built as a
church, and then used as a combination
funeral parlor-wedding chapel Though
the idea of viewing a film in the same
room where others have viewed their
dearly departed may sound strange, the
Bijou has established itself as one of the
few movie houses in Eugene to have any
personality
There's a surprise in store for an
yone who hasn't visited the Bijou since
last spring you can see the screen The
old tiny screen has been replaced by a
good large one suitable for wide-screen
movies While they were at it they re
placed the old sound system with Klipsch
speakers and added new 35mm projec
tion equipment to their old 16mm equip
ment The result is one of the best screen
images in town accompanied by a good
sound system
Gone also are the sticky floors and
uncomfortable wooden chairs Instead,
the Bijou sports full carpeting and good,
soft seats Where a double feature at the
Bijou used to be a test of endurance, it is
now a real pleasure
A lot of people are starting to dis
cover the Bijou, which means seats are in
short supply, (it being a rather small
room) Any economics professor can tell
you that this means one of two things: (1)
you pay more, because demand exceeds
supply, or (2) you get to the theater a little
early and have some tea
The Bijou is aimed at campus
audiences, and shows mostly specialty
flicks and foreign films The Midnight
movies are usually either "Rocky Horror
Picture Show" or concert movies
(where, as I understand, the speakers
release all their pent-up power)
Cinema 7
Cinema 7
Atrium Building, W. 10th Avenue and
Olive Street.
Admission: $3, Sunday matinees $2.
If you thought the Bijou was small,
try getting a ticket to a good movie at
Cinema 7 five minutes before the show
Although most of the seats permit a good
view of the screen, beware of the seats
right next to the massive speakers locat
ed between the audience and the screen
All the projectionists I've talked to blame
it on the print of the film they got, but the
volume level varies between painful and
unintelligible
In true Eugene spirit, Cinema 7 sells
fruit juices and animal crackers instead
of soft drinks and other "poison " Yes.
you can still get popcorn Between fea
tures at Cinema 7 you can lounge in the
comfy furniture and watch the fish in
their aquarium The atmosphere goes
well with the standard film fare at the
theater: little-known films, cult films,
foreign flicks, and a few oldies To pay
the bills (so we hear), Cinema 7 has been
running "Behind The Green Door" at
midnight on weekends as long as anyone
can remember Somehow it’s difficult to
imagine watching a porno flick while
eating animal crackers and drinking or
ganic papaya juice, but that’s Eugene for
you
Cinema
World
Cinema World
Valley River Center
Admission: $3.50, Economy Hour $2,
Thursday nights $1.50
Perhaps you've been to one of the
lavish theaters that used to be in style
long ago You know, the kind with foun
tains. statues, lots of sofas, and carpet
ing so thick you sink up to your knees in
it Well, Cinema World isn't like that
Cinema World is a normal, modern,
high-tech quad theater It's got four
rooms (of various sizes), plastic seats
which rock, crowded bathrooms, lots of
cement and sticky floors
Although you probably wouldn't
want to live there, it's a fairly nice place to
visit Nothing really detracts from the
movie, unless they happen to get a par
ticularly bad print For instance,
Superman II is in such bad shape you
might think it was raining upside down
through half of the movie. It was so
grainy that the sky looked like it was full
of pepper
Lots of people like Cinema World,
and they bring all their cars to the
parking lot. On weekends, finding a
parking space is almost impossible Sur
prisingly enough, Economy Hours and
Thursday Night specials aren't too
crowded, so save time and money and go
then
Fine Arts
Fine Arts
630 Main St. Springfield.
Admission: 99 cents — always.
Going to the Fine Arts is quite an
experience, whether you see a movie or
not Like all other 99 cent-ers, they have
an old building with lots of broken seats,
warmed-over popcorn, and floors that
are so thickly covered with dried Cokes
that you can't tell whether it was origin
ally cement or what
The Fine Arts is cute, if only for its
seediness The recorded message on the
box office answering machine
(747-2201 )is well, amazing When you
arrive at the box office, you give your
money to a woman who looks at you as if
you were Charles Manson's brother and
unfolds every crease of your money to
make sure you're not pulling a fast one
Only then will she carefully slide a penny
toward you. being careful not to look at
your face.
Once inside, you can count on two
things: the film will break at least once
and every male in the audience will be
wearing a baseball cap with a ‘ Mac"
truck patch on the front.
For a truly moving experience, go to
The Univer
sity Museum
of Art will be
filled with
masks this
month Find
out why on
Page 2.
Tom Lass
well and Bob
Friedman bat
tle it out as the
University
Theatre
revives “In
herit The
Wind" this
weekend
Find out more
on Page 3.
!
i
Christopher
Cross wasn’t
that great
when he ap
peared in
Portland on
Sunday Find
out what went
wrong on
Page 6