{"id":15,"date":"2007-05-18T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2007-05-18T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/?p=15"},"modified":"2021-08-24T15:35:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T20:35:15","slug":"sundance-608-rides-into-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/18\/sundance-608-rides-into-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Redford’s Sundance 608 Rides into Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

I attended the May 6 benefit at Sundance 608, the new six-screen multiplex that opened in Madison last week with great fanfare. I\u2019m frankly excited at having Sundance in town, because it serves to increase the number of screening possibilities for non-Hollywood films. Robert Redford explained in an Isthmus<\/em> interview: \u201cWe wanted to take the concept of supporting new artists into exhibition.”<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t so crazy about the film I saw at the benefit, Paris Je\u2019Taime<\/em>, which only proves how difficult the five-minute format is for even the best of filmmakers. The sound and picture, however, looked great, and each of theaters is stadium-tiered so that the sightlines are excellent. I went back this week to see the late Adrienne Shelly\u2019s Waitress<\/em>. Since I wrote about Hal Hartley\u2019s Trust<\/em> in one of the chapters of my book and have always been a huge fan, I don\u2019t know how I thought I possibly could see the film without experiencing an inevitable meltdown.<\/p>\n

In any event, I would not have imagined that a new movie theater would engender such a spirited debate on the \u201cfilmies” listserv, but the gripes have ranged from the croissants to the art on the walls to the imported birch trees that line the walkway to the various theaters. The biggest complaints, however, have to do with the scaled ticket pricing, or added surcharge, which varies according to the time and day. I paid $7.75 for a 2:30 PM matinee (my ticket receipt ironically shows $6.25) on a Monday, but I hear that it can cost $11.75 for a Friday or Saturday primetime screening, once the $3.00 surcharge is factored in. Will this business model work? I\u2019m not really sure. At my matinee screening there were about 20 elderly people \u2013 the kind of audience you might expect to attend a movie on a weekday afternoon.<\/p>\n

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Sundance 608 is attempting to convey an upscale rather than ballpark experience for movie-goers, with a bar and bistro, lounges, cafe, free wi-fi, and a rooftop bar for warm weather. The gift shop sells mostly Sundance sweat shirts and caps or branded merchandise and crafts (but so far no books on independent cinema). I was interested in a Sundance Film Festival catalogue, but unfortunately it wasn\u2019t for sale. The theater d\u00e9cor itself made me think I was in Scottsdale, Arizona rather than Madison, except for the trees rather than cacti. Despite public relations statements from Sundance that emphasize this community, I\u2019m not convinced that Sundance completely understands the Madison market or the subtle politics and mores of the city.<\/p>\n

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Madison doesn\u2019t have a moneyed class in the same way that many other cities do. It\u2019s not that there aren\u2019t wealthy people who live here \u2013 there are plenty \u2013 but snobbery has never played well. It took years before wine bars and chic restaurants became accepted. The Wisconsin Film Festival is certainly a major hit. This year there were 28,700 paid admissions for the four-day festival, but it\u2019s not a star-studded event and ticket prices are inexpensive. The UW Cinematheque often draws packed audiences for its weekly fare of classic films and art cinema. Like the art museums, it\u2019s free to the public. Sundance, however, is selling a brand name, a certain lifestyle to people, so it doesn\u2019t surprise me that Madisonians might remain a bit skeptical, even though they appreciate the attention. Robert Redford was a no-show at the opening, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll turn up as promised at some point in the near future.<\/p>\n

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Numerous emails and blogs reported that having ushers introduce the films seemed pretentious. At my screening, the young female usher beamed as she escorted people to their reserved seats, while a claymation short played silently on the screen minus its sound track. When the usher publicly welcomed everyone and announced she would be checking on our viewing experience, I can\u2019t say I felt reassured. After Waitress<\/em>, I needed some time to regain my composure, but the usher was back again and her enthusiastic smile upon exiting seemed somehow inappropriate to the sadness I felt after watching Shelly\u2019s film.<\/p>\n

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Sundance 608 is counter-intuitive in a business sense. Jim Kreul suggests that most people (other than cinephiles) don\u2019t go to the movies anymore. He writes: \u201cGenerally speaking, it is very hard to get people out of the house for a film. This seems true of young and old, but for different reasons. Young: Income, video games, rap music, etc. Old: Home Theaters, fear of parallel parking, fear of rap music, etc.” Many friends with kids certainly no longer go to the movies. It\u2019s too expensive to get a baby sitter. There\u2019s television and Netflix, and let\u2019s face it: people are working harder and longer hours than ever. How do you fit in a three-hour movie such as David Lynch\u2019s Inland Empire<\/em> (or any overly long feature film) on a work night? It\u2019s almost as if many film directors are deliberately trying to drive off the remaining audience by extending most viewing experiences beyond endurance. It really does boil down to being able to find the time to go to the movies.<\/p>\n

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Obviously Sundance is counting on people to have a drink and dinner and catch a movie, but that\u2019s where the ticket surcharge could backfire. It could easily be seen as unnecessary gouging. The success of Sundance will also depend very heavily on the quality of its programming. I think people want to see the alternative movies they are reading about nationally in the New York Times<\/em> and the New Yorker<\/em>, or hearing about on National Public Radio. That\u2019s why there was a big audience for Charles Burnett\u2019s Killer of Sheep<\/em> at a 5 PM Thursday screening at the Wisconsin Film Festival. That\u2019s where Sundance will be able to pick up an audience for certain films. It\u2019s possible that Sundance 608 could become a place for people to go for one-stop entertainment, which is why the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) also has a restaurant and bar and a Rooftop Film Series in the summer.<\/p>\n

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I looked at the movies that are playing at the IFC Center in Manhattan: Tsai Ming-liang\u2019s I Don\u2019t Want to Sleep Alone<\/em>, the beautifully restored 35mm print of Charles Burnett\u2019s Killer of Sheep<\/em>, Day Night Day Night<\/em>, Private Fears in Public Places<\/em>, Wind That Shakes the Barley<\/em>, and Zoo<\/em>. I\u2019ll promise not to kvetch if Sundance 608 delivers this type of programming. In addition, the Madison newspapers better bolster their staff of movie reviewers because that\u2019s also an important part of the equation. And audiences really need to attend screenings of great films when they play here. Kreul writes to his fellow film colleagues: \u201cAll you can do is support what you want to maintain in your community, and see what happens. You’re the target audience for these films, so you’re essentially telling the distributors not to market the films in Madison if you don’t go to see them in the theaters.” He\u2019s right!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I attended the May 6 benefit at Sundance 608, the new six-screen multiplex that opened in Madison last week with great fanfare. I\u2019m frankly excited at having Sundance in town, because it serves to increase the number of screening possibilitiesRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4209,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/4209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jjmurphyfilm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}