On this post, longtime fans of the Ritz Theatres in southern New Jersey were bemoaning the repurposing of that art-film house.

Now comes word that the historic Rialto in Pasadena is closing after 82 years. Landmark Theatres has no apparent plans to reopen or repurpose the space.

The Rialto has not been an art house, per se. What it is is a historic, beautiful theatre; one with a huge screen, hundreds and hundreds of seats, and a balcony. In the 90’s it was also a place I was able to see big beautiful art films, re-releases, and foreign offerings on a big beautiful screen, like Peter Greenaway’s films, one of the many final directors’ cuts of “Blade Runner,” and Roberto Begnini movies. I also remember being myself and whomever was accompanying me being two out of about seven people watching the film, so its closing is not unexpected. That doesn’t make it any less sad, though.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 11:51 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.