Quick Snaps: Say Goodbye to the Dobie Theatre (for Now)
I didn't realize it would happen this quickly, but Landmark is closing the Dobie Theatre this Sunday, August 22. We knew back in April that Landmark planned to give up the theater, but somehow I'd hoped that we would hear about a new tenant to run the movie theater before it closed.
I'm a little sad about it, but you know what? I think the last movie I remember seeing at Dobie may have been Baghead. That was the July 4 weekend in 2008. A lot of other people are feeling upset about it and they haven't been to the theater in years either. It hasn't been a film-festival venue in a couple of years, either. Landmark made the decision last year to show more first-run Hollywood movies there and fewer arthouse/indie films. It isn't the Dobie I knew when I moved to Austin in 1991, the one that played Hands on a Hardbody for just about an entire year.
Apparently there is some interest in the theater reopening without Landmark. I've heard a few vague whispers about that myself, but nothing definite. In the Austin Movie Blog article linked above, a spokesman for Carlton Group, which owns the Dobie Mall, said, "We want to get [Dobie Theatre] back to its heyday." But is that even possible?
Dobie is a theater I have always wanted to love, but it is rather ugly duckling-ish. The decor is delightful ... but after sitting in some of those half-sideways seats, you may feel the need for a chiropractor. It's particularly hellish for the short. You can walk to it from UT, which is nice. When I worked at UT, I imagined skipping out of work for a long lunch to see movies ... but Dobie didn't have weekday matinees. There's free parking ... in a rather gloomy garage that seems a bit scary late at night.
And again, as I pointed out in April, Austin's movie-theater landscape is changing. The Dobie was no longer the only theater in town that showed cult, indie, foreign and arthouse movies ... when it did. I can't remember the last time the theater showed a movie shot in Austin (come to think of it, it may have been Baghead) -- it was no longer the theater that gave Slacker its chance, but was the theater showing Avatar in 2D. And if it re-opens, it will be competing with Arbor, the Alamo Drafthouse chain, and the soon-to-open Violet Crown theater downtown. Arbor has less scary parking, Alamo has many alluring amenities, and at least Violet Crown will be near interesting dining and entertainment options, as opposed to being in the middle of a student-y food court.
If Dobie opens again, whoever runs it needs to do something rather different in terms of programming -- something that we can't already get from existing theaters, something so tempting that moviegoers will not mind dealing with the UT campus and the weird seating arrangements and so forth. Movies you can't see anywhere else. I think it's an interesting challenge, and I'd love to see someone try it. The alternative is a dollar theater for college students, but I don't think that will work in these days where even a dollar is more expensive than watching a pirated copy online.
What would you like to see happen to the Dobie? Please feel free to comment. If you have no suggestions, I'd love to hear your favorite Dobie memory. Mine may be seeing Dead Alive there and continually clamping my hands over my mouth because I thought I might throw up. Loved every minute of it.
Three great memories: 1.
Three great memories:
1. Moving up a few rows during the last movie I saw there, TWO LOVERS, so that I could get a better view of the screen. I adored that movie!
2. Seeing a long line for a film I helped make and then, during the screening, running across the street for bubble tea at Veggie Heaven.
3. Learning that SXSW wasn't going to use at as a venue beginning in 2009, thus ending my worry that my film would be relegated to screening there.
Dobie Memories - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
for me that is. I've seen countless movies as a UT student and during SXSW at the Dobie, many memorable and forgettable ones!
The good -- Waterborne from writer/director Ben Rekhi screened at SXSW 2005. The film follows the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the water supply of Los Angeles, and its effects on a group of residents. I almost walked out within the first ten minutes, the realism hit too close to home after 9/11. Great film, well-researched and interesting character piece.
The bad -- Southlander: Diary of a Desperate Musician. SHOULD'VE walked out of this one at SXSW 2001, but I had a major crush on Rory Cochrane after seeing him in The Low Life -- which I think I saw at the Dobie during SXSW in 1995/96 so long ago.
And finally the "ugly" -- absolutely loved seeing Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) on a date night during SXSW 2002 at the Dobie, in the special private couch seating. However, the relationship ended so badly and impacted my moviegoing that I have negative connotations with the film.
Red Riding Trilogy
I just hope some of the other theaters pick up the slack. I know we're getting a new arthouse theater so I'm not too worried but the Dobie was the only theater to show the Red Riding trilogy. It hasn't been my first choice in years but occasionally, even recently, it filled some holes in the film programming in this town.
good point
Good point, John. I think they were also the only theater in town to show both parts of "Che" on the same day.
Shaking THE hand, being alone, and getting lost
As an out-of-towner, my experiences at the Dobie were all as a SXSW attendee, but they were unforgettable. Topping the list was meeting members of The Wrecking Crew at the film of the same name, especially legendary drummer Hal Blaine, who'd played sessions on most of my favorite hits of the 60s and 70s. Shaking his right hand, I said, "so this is the hand!" To which he replied, "and this is the other hand!" as he reached out to me with the left. I also have fond memories of the screening of a film (which shall go unnamed) at which everyone walked out but me, yet the director stayed and conducted a Q&A as I sat, alone, in the audience. Finally, getting lost in the corridors among the theaters. I could never quite get the hang of the layout.
Death by Neglect?
I still wonder just how long ago Landmark decided to abandon the Dobie. Yes, Austin has serious competition for arthouse films with the Arbor and the Alamo, and it's not the most convenient locations for students. But with the digital projection advances and 3D options, back in early 2009 I was told that there were no plans to upgrade the Dobie when researching an article. In a town full of film geeks there's a real need to cultivate an audience. It seems like it's only been the last few months that the Dobie has been getting exclusive engagements, right before Landmark leaves. Seems like it was left to swim or sink on it's own.
It used to make me cringe when film fests used that location, because the seats are not built for tall people and that Egyptian room was so oddly shaped. But I do have fond memories of the Dobie, particularly a "private" screening with two friends for the unadvertised Kevin Costner horror/thriller THE NEW DAUGHTER.
funniest memory
So many good movies we seen there. In the pre-Drafthouse days, the Dobie was the only place for animation festsn 16mm, even VHS/BETA screenings.When they used to do midnight movies every night of the week, we went to a midnighter of Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Someone's dorm room was on fire as the movie ended, fire alarms in the theatre never sounded and we were blissfully unaware. Not exactly the last movie you ever want to see, but it now makes a great memory.
Dobie Memories
I had a few very memorable times at the Dobie.
One, when I saw Super Troopers at SXSW a full 9 (was it really) months before it came out and Paul Soter was in the theater.
This was a huge one for me because nobody really believed how truly hilarious this movie would be, or that it would ever get picked up and distributed well...at least, well enough that it woudl reach it's intended audience.
Two, when I got to introduce "Pitch People," an incredibly indie documentary that came across my plate when I was writing for Harry Knowles as "Mouth." Pitch People is about how the boardwalk "pitch" or live sales became the full-length infomercial. The producers of the film brought one of the Pitch Men from the movie and a product advertised through the course of the film. We had some audience members try it out, making a terrible mess of badly-cut french fries in the process.
Ultimately, we gave out some inexpensive steak knife sets and had a lot of fun with a movie that still IMO never got the full reception it deserved. But we thank Dobie for getting it out there at all.
I guess that's the beauty of the Dobie. It's the film consolation prize. Yeah, it didn't get wide distribution. No, Alamo couldn't pick it up because their stable was full for the summer. But hey, "At least it was at the Dobie" :)
WE'LL MISS YOU DOBIE THEATER!
Lived in Austin from 1999 to 2002
Wow. The films that I remember seeing there during that time include:
Full Metal Jacket
Clockwork Orange
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
The Third Man
Grand Illusion
Au Hasard Balthazar
Gaspar Noe's 'I Stand Alone'
John Waters''Polyester' (in Odorama, with scratch-and-sniff cards)
Hands on a Hard Body
Run Lola Run
Woody Allen's 'Sweet and Lowdown'
the first Austin screening of 'Y Tu Mama Tambien'
Dario Argento's 'The Stendhal Syndrome'
The City of Lost Children
and, most importantly for me, an Austin Film Society series on early Francois Truffaut, including:
Les Mistons
The 400 Blows
Shoot the Piano Player (one of my personal all-time favorites)
Antoine et Colette, and
Stolen Kisses....
among many others
* I remember the staff had to cancel screenings of 'Jules and Jim' during that Truffaut series when the film 'came off the plate', so they re-screened 'Piano Player' again instead. I also remember that weekday matinee screenings existed during these years.
More than a few
The last thing I saw there was the Red Riding trilogy. The projection was fine (which it had not been for years). Alas, too late.
I remember black and white slides from Book of Days projected before every show in the 80's and 90's.
I remember Slacker on 16mm.
Hands on a Hardbody.
There I saw The Cruise.
Listened to Wash West recount the theft of his trousers by another even more notorious filmmaker (or do I have that backwards? -- as the other filmmaker spoke there too, before, perhaps, or later, in silver lame breeches).
Brocka's Macho Dancer smuggled out of the Philippines for a festival showing, and the legendarily psychedelic Pink Narcissus.
The mini-budget puzzler/satire The Delicate Art of the Rifle, still unavailable on DVD. The micro-budget latchkey-kids-in-trouble noir potboiler The Natural History of Parking Lots, also unavailable.
Scorsese docs, Lynch shorts, experimental films. Fleeting shadows all.