Grindhouse / New Beverly Cinema

I saw Grindhouse last week. I liked it, especially Planet Terror. I was surprised by that preference since I'm generally more of a Tarantinoist than a Rodriguezian.

I had mixed feelings upon hearing Nouvelle Vague's cover of Too Drunk to Fuck used in a scene in Planet Terror. I'm a big Nouvelle Vague fan and I like their version of the Dead Kennedy's classic a lot, but I'm always a little disappointed when one of my relatively obscure interests gets a lot of attention due to its use as an element of some larger pop cultural work. That happened to me big-time with the Priory of Sion and The Da Vinci Code.

I was looking forward to seeing Grindhouse because its double-feature-with-trailers gimmick reminded me of one of the things I miss the most about Los Angeles: the New Beverly Cinema. The New Beverly (which was thanked, I saw with delight, in the credits to Grindhouse) is a revival theater where you can see double-features for the price of one admission. The movies they pair always have something in common. Usually, it's something obvious, like the same director, but sometimes it's harder to figure out.

I saw several good combos there, including:

2001: A Space Odyssey / A Clockwork Orange

Easy Rider / Two-Lane Blacktop

City of Lost Children / Delicatessen

Mulholland Dr. / Lost Highway

The Third Man / The Magnificent Ambersons

I know I saw others, but can't recall what they were. I think I saw Kubrick's Lolita there, but can't remember what it played with.

The New Beverly doesn't have a parking lot (or, at least, it didn't when I used to go there), so movie-goers had to park a block or two or three away in a residential neighborhood and walk to the theater. Most of the residents of this neighborhood were ultra-Orthodox Jews (black hats, beards, etc.), which really added to the whole experience. I especially enjoyed going to the New Beverly on Friday nights, when the sidewalks were full of shul attendees.

One time I stopped at a garage sale. I bought a rotary telephone, which I still use. As I was leaving I saw a menorah, which I really wanted. Since I had already paid for the phone and was afraid I might be late for the movie, however, I passed on the menorah.