Screen Test

Movie theaters are where I spend much of my working life, and I do have my preferences. I know where I like to sit and where I don’t like to sit, how loud I like the sound, how much of an angle (it’s called the rake) the seats should be placed on in relation to one another.

When I’m working, I usually see films in the numerous rented screening rooms dotted across the city or in the theaters large and small that the studios have on their own lots. Quality projection is a point of pride with the studios, and they periodically build large new state-of-the-art facilities--Warner Bros. and Paramount have come up with the two newest and most impressive--to show their product to its best advantage.

When I’m working, I prefer to see films without much of a crowd, because it’s easier to concentrate that way. But when I have the chance to see movies for relaxation, home theaters are not for me. As convenient as videos, laserdiscs and the new DVD system are, they don’t make my day. I want to see films in a big room in the dark. I want the theatrical experience.

Los Angeles is a city with a daunting number of theaters, and I haven’t sampled more than the smallest fraction of them. But that hasn’t stopped me from having my preferences, from looking forward to being in some spaces more than others.

Sometimes I like theaters because of what they stand for as much as what they are. While I confess to not having visited the New Beverly recently, I continue to admire its steadfast repertory policy, even though it’s not, shall we say, the most high-tech locale in town.

The same goes for the string of spectacular movie houses like the Orpheum and the Million Dollar Theater that make downtown L.A. the home of what is probably the most impressive collection of golden age movie palaces in the entire country. These fantasy theaters, like Santa Barbara’s marvelous Arlington, offered movie-going at its best, and though many of them are shuttered for most of the year, I count it as a privilege to be close to so many classic spaces.

I’m also very fond of the Nuart in West Los Angeles, especially since the management bit the bullet and invested in much-needed new seats. Its old-fashioned large size coexists nicely with its up-to-the-minute programming, and some of my favorite L.A. moviegoing experiences, like being part of an enthusiastic capacity crowd for an early revival screening of director Ridley Scott’s cut of “Blade Runner,” took place within its walls.

Speaking of revivals, L.A. also has some excellent museum sites for viewing. Both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Goldwyn Theater (which periodically hosts events open to the public) are top facilities, while UCLA’s Melnitz Hall, though smaller and creakier, has a pleasant movie madness ambience. And the American Cinematheque’s planned takeover of the monumental Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard is something to look forward to.

With so many theaters to choose from, it was especially difficult to pick absolute favorites, but a triumvirate of theaters, each representing a cherished aspect of the movie-going experience, finally suggested itself. In no particular order they are:

El Capitan, Hollywood. Pressured by local conservationists, the folks at Walt Disney did a corporate good deed when they restored this now-glowing jewel of a vintage theater, just across Hollywood Boulevard from the celebrated Chinese. From its neon-lit exterior to its lovingly cleaned and polished interior, the El Capitan allows you to not only see what movie-going was like during Hollywood’s golden age but also to feel the experience as well.

The Aero, Santa Monica. I did my first movie-going in small neighborhood theaters, and their demise thanks to video and changing distribution patterns saddens me. The Aero, on Santa Monica’s chic Montana Avenue, has resisted the trend, and still shows double features of films just past their first run. Physically well-maintained and with a loyal neighborhood audience, its continued survival is nothing less than heartening.

AMC Century 14, Century City Shopping Center. Multiplexes, with their small screens and potential for sound overlap from theater to theater, are in general my least favorite sites. But the AMC manages to please because its bright and bustling lobby both creates and enhances the sense of anticipation and excitement that ought to be part of everyone’s movie-going experience, whether they’re in the business or just looking to have some fun.