a 35mm print of Variety played for me alone
only i was there for this occurrence, in this movie city with a metropolitan population of sixteen million
At the NYFF screening of
Transit, I looked around at the nearly packed house and went ‘
this is the difference between NY & LA’. Had the same thought when I saw Margarethe von Trotta's
Marianne & Julianne, off of
polka’s recommendation, at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn (a converted former-bodega, so minuscule, but there was only standing room after the 30 or so card table chairs had filled).
My own memory of LA jives with your experience. Screenings at The Egyptian, for stuff like
The Night of the Hunter or
Sweet Smell of Success, movies clearly within the classic Hollywood lane, beget a smattering of people, but non-genre, off-the-beaten-path-repertory has so much harder a time. I don’t remember much even showing, tbh, outside of The Silent Movie Theater (Cinefamily / now Fairfax). NY has its own gross problems, but less this one. Very curious how eward will fare.
fwiw, I kind of doubt you’d like it even on this end - the state of being alone in a crowded room seems like an integral part of the jenkins worldview.