Cinema – Jon The Blogcentric

VIFF 2025 Review: A Poet (Un poeta)

7 October 2025Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Ubeimar Rios plays an aging poet who is a troubled man who can’t seem to do anything right in *A Poet*.

I started my film watching at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival with the Colombian film A Poet. It is a very bizarre story of not just the poet but the people in his life and who he intersects with.

Poetry has been Oscar Restrepo’s life but as he’s aging, he needs to face the fact he can’t make a living off it. He’s written two books of poetry as a young adult, but stopped after. Any job he’s tried, he’s been down on his luck. The guild of poets he’s with look down upon him, his 15 year-old daughter Daniela has no real relation with him, and even his ailing mother wonders what’s wrong with him. It’s gotten to the point his siblings want him to change his life around and get a job. He still has that dream in him of being as great of a Colombian poet as Jose Asuncion Silva.

One day, the guild of poets offer him a teaching job at a high school. As he’s teaching a class, he learns one of his students, a girl named Yurlady, has a gift for writing poetry and drawing. As he looks at her notebook, he is astounded by her work and sees a lot of promise in her. He looks at it as an opportunity to be a mentor to her to get a poetry scholarship. As he tutors her, he spends time outside of classes with her and tries to get to know her, her family, her bad living conditions, and her works. He sees a lot of potential in her to be the renowned poet he never could be.

Over time, problems arise with Oscar and his tutelage. A lot of students say he taught classes after he had been drinking. The guild notices him spending too much outside time with Yurlady and reminds him that could harm his reputation in his new job and even provoke nasty rumors. Even Yurlady questions Oscar in making a career in poetry. Especially since she has a huge extended family to support in the future.

Soon Oscar helps Yurlady get a spot on a national talk show to promote an upcoming meeting of young poets. The appearance is a success for her. Then the night of the poetry reading features a group of young and established poets from various backgrounds. The meeting is attended by Yurlady and some of her classmates. Yurlady’s reading goes well. In the evening, Oscar gets drunk with his colleagues and forgets about Yurlady. Later that evening, Oscar finds out Yurlady got sloppy drunk and is vomiting nonstop. Instead of staying with her at the hotel all night, he takes a cab and drops her off at her home’s doorstep.

That’s when the rumors get worse. That Oscar was careless, that he copulated with her. Oscar is fired from his job. The guild of poets will offer an out-of-court settlement for what happened provided Yurlady does a video explaining everything. Just in the middle of shooting, Oscar blockades and insists it not happen for personal reasons. The problem Oscar causes is so embarrassing, they give the family a cash payment settlement. Oscar is so defamed after that, Daniela wants nothing to do with him.

Just when it appears all is lost and as his mother’s health condition is deteriorating, Daniela finds something at her home. It’s her missing notebook that Yurlady found in Oscar’s car weeks earlier. Daniela sees Yurlady used the book to do poetry and drawings of her own. She also notices Yurlady wrote a letter to her specifically telling the whole truth of what did and did not happen that night. The letter also mentions about how she really feels about poetry. She loves doing it, but it’s not the passion Oscar wants her to have. It’s after that Daniela welcomes Oscar back into her life, but demands he smarten up. It’s at the very end with a family tragedy that the full reconciliation happens.

This film is both a drama and a comedy. Oscar and his character is what gives the film the biggest comedic elements. He’s a poet and a fail of a person. He’s like a lot of people in the arts in which they’re good at their craft, but they’re their own worst enemy. Often you will find them failing at everything else. Even making an alcoholic of themselves. That’s Oscar. The funny things is as you watch Oscar, you will see a lot of personality traits and habits that will remind you of a lot of poets in the past. I’ve even joked that poets are ‘too suicidal.’

Oscar is not as suicidal as your common poet but he is his own worst enemy, can’t think properly, can’t succeed at anything else, and finds himself back on the bottle again and again. He feels since he failed as a father to his daughter and as a poet, he can be seen as a mentor to at least one person in his life. He feels he can mentor a promising poet and share his dream of poetry with her and help her become a great. It first appears he failed at that too as he continues to make dumb decisions like making a minor part of the poetry scene. In the end, he made things worse for him and those around him. That appears to be the common theme of the film: Oscar feeling like a failure. We see it in how he messes up time and time again. We also see it as he looks at images of the poet Silva and the writer Bukowski of how he laments over his failure at literary greatness.

The film also has drama as it’s about his strained family relations and his own desire to want to be liked and admired. It’s also of his complicated redemption. It’s through Yurlady and his daughter’s notebook that he gets his unlikely redemption. It’s like the flower blooming out of a ground of ashes. It’s like the mess-up Oscar had with Yurlady eventually becomes what starts the path of the resolve between Oscar and Daniela. It is right at the ending it appears Oscar has the chance to redeem himself and really turn his life around for his family and his daughter.

This film is a great work from director/writer Simon Mesa Soto. His first feature film, 2021’s Amparo was an impressive breakthrough for him. Here, he follows it up with another great story about a troubled man who appears to be art itself in all of its triumphs and devastations, despite struggling to better himself as a poet and constantly messing up as a person. It’s a film that will impress you when and where you least expect it. Also it will become the story you didn’t expect it to be.

Possibly the most surprising thing of this film is that for the lead actors, this is their first-ever film roles. You wouldn’t notice it! Ubeimar Rios was great as Oscar. Playing a poet who is a man-child and makes life hard for everyone is quite an accomplishment for a first role. Also great is Rebeca Andrade for playing Yurlady. She did well not only as the young girl with dreams, but as the one person who could be a solution to Oscar in an unexpected way. Great performances also include Allisson Correa as the teenage daughter caught in the middle of this mess and Margarita Soto as the mother who tries to get Oscar’s head together.

This film is Colombia’s official entry for this year’s Oscar race in the category of Best International Feature Film. Additional awards the film has won are the Cannes Film Festival Jury Award of Un Certain Regard, Horizon’s Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, the CineCoPro Award at the Munich Film Fest, and winner of the Bright Horizons Award at the Melbourne Film Festival.

The film A Poet is a unique comedy that’s also a sad comedy. It’s about a man who appears to be a poor excuse for a human being, but gets an unlikely redemption.

VIFF 2024 Ends On A Good Note

26 December 2024Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

I know that VIFF ended over two months ago, but I lacked the drive to write for a long time. Since we’ve passed Christmas, I figured it’s enough wasting time and to get out the wrap-up blog.

Last year, the Vancouver International Film Festival ended the Sunday before Canadian Thanksgiving. This year, they end on Sunday October 6th: a week before Canadian Thanksgiving. Still, it was an excellent 11 days of cinema. Yes, there was the continuation of downsizing for the festival. There were less than half the number of films there were in past Festivals before the pandemic. The church that used to be the Centre In Vancouver For Performing Arts was not available this year as it has been in past years. Despite that, most facilities that had been available for the VIFF in past years were available again. VIFF also continued to showcase digital films and digital arts as it’s fast becoming a growing art form. The common cinematic films still remained the highlight of the Festival and there were excellent turn outs. There were sellout shows and repeat screenings for many films. I’ll explain more when I talk about my volunteering experience.

For this year, I was only lucky to see twelve films. I still had my goals of watching a shorts segment, a Canadian feature-length film and a Best International Feature Film Oscar contender. I was able to accomplish all three. I often want to go above and beyond it but it didn’t work out. I didn’t have as much free time during VIFF as I normally do. Outside of Monday September 30th that was a national holiday, there weren’t any regular weekdays when I could see films at any time. Another problem was not as many films had a 9:30 start time on the weekdays that’s often the best bet for me. Despite those setbacks, I did make it work. Twelve is the same number of films I saw last year. There were at least two days when I saw three films. Yes, I have a habit of cramming. Actually there were three days I saw three films but one was a day I saw a single one by choice and the other two as an usher.

For volunteering, I worked ushering at the International Village again. The crazy thing about this year is there were a lot of changes in set-up. In the past, there would be a ticket purchase booth at ground level, line control and organizing for the three cinemas on the second and the cinemas on the third floor. This year there was no booth on the main floor, lines were still on the second but ticket purchase was on the third floor just outside the theatre entrance. Even the volunteer meeting room changed. In the past, it was in a room past the theatre admission area. This year it was moved to an area just outside the main entrance. It was a lot of getting used to and sometimes a discomfort. I volunteered for three days.

The first two shifts took place the evening of the first Saturday (September 28th) and the Sunday afternoon the following day. For those two days, they were mostly to do with line control and supervising the Platinum Pass lounge. In both cases, I didn’t have the luck of seeing films. It was after that Sunday afternoon shift completed that I went to see two films after. On Saturday, October 5th, I had the luck of being able to see an Altered States film before I could start my third and last volunteer shift. With it being my last shift for the year, I had the luck of being an usher and seeing two films in the theatre. Both were documentaries.

With only nine films seen before the last day of the Festival (Sunday October 6th), I made the final day my catch-up day. There would be two films I wanted to see but would not be guaranteed a seat because their tickets sold out: the Latvian animated film Flow and the Farsi-language Canadian film Universal Language. I first took a gamble with Flow by being in the standby line-up 45 minutes in advance. After waiting and waiting, I was able to get in. I got in ten minutes after it began. It was that high in demand and it was one of the few films at VIFF open to all ages. I saw it and enjoyed it. Also I wasn’t too disappointed with coming in late because I would later have the luck of seeing it in its entirety at the VIFF volunteer party held a week later! For the rest of the day before attempting to see Universal Language, I tried making judgments of what else to see and when. I saw the Marlina film in between that time and then went back to the International Village to be early enough to see Universal Language. While the gamble with Flow paid off, the gamble with Universal Language didn’t. Being only second in the standby line did not assure me a seat. So with limited time and distance left, I rushed over to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Warehouse to see The End. Although I wasn’t happy with The End, I was glad to see the last film of VIFF 2024 to complete itself.

For those that want a list of the films I saw at VIFF 2024, here they are in the order I saw them in:

Now some of you may want to know which films are the award winners. There were six juried award winners and nine people’s choice award winners. Interesting for this year, they changed the names of the juried categories! Descriptions of the awards are with the named categories:

JURIED AWARD WINNERS

SUMMIT Award
for outstanding narrative feature by an established Canadian director:
–Universal Language (dir. Matthew Rankin)

HORIZON Award
for outstanding first or second feature by a Canadian filmmaker:
–Mongrels (dir. George Yoo)

TIDES Award
for outstanding documentary feature by a Canadian filmmaker:
–Ninan Auassat: We, The Children (dir. Kim O’Bomsawin)

ARBUTUS Award
for outstanding feature film production in BC:
–Inay (Mama) (dir. Thea Loo)

SHORT FORUM Award
open to all short films in the Short Forums
–Strawberry Shortcake (dir. Deborah Devyn Chuang)

VANGUARD Award
open to all feature films in VIFF’s Vanguard section
–78 Days (dir. Emilija Gasic)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Galas and Special Presentations
–I’m Still Here (dir. Walter Salles)

Showcase
–No Other Land (dirs. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor)

Panorama
–Angela’s Shadow (dir. Jules Arita Koostachin)

Vanguard
–Red Path (dir. Lotfi Achour)

Northern Lights
–The Stand (dir. Christopher Auchter)

Insights
–The Chef and the Daruma (dir. Mads K. Baekkevold)

Spectrum
–Grand Theft Hamlet (dir. Pinny Grylls & Sam Crane)

Portraits
–Luther: Never Too Much (dir. Dawn Porter)

Altered States
–40 Acres (dir. R. T. Thorne)

There you have it! That’s my long-delayed wrap up blog for VIFF 2024. Next year’s VIFF will actually start in the month of October! The Festival is expected to go from October 2 – 12 in 2025. Looking forward to it.

The Dolphin Theatre: Gone But Fondly Remembered

25 June 20143 January 2016Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

On Tuesday, May 27th, the Dolphin Theatre located on Hastings Street in North Burnaby showed its last shows. It would make room for a planned condominium project. The Dolphin Theatre doesn’t have the same legendary status as recently closed theatres like the Hollywood or the Ridge but it did provide a place for a community.

The Dolphin Theatre was a small movie theatre located in North Burnaby by the corner of Hastings and Willingdon. It was opened in 1966 and featured two screens with a total seating capacity of 430. It started as an independent theatre and continued to be successful at operating for a long time. However during the last decade, the Dolphin Theatre had been under threat from problems commonly experienced by most smaller theatres in Greater Vancouver like land development issues, rising costs of rent, the changing forms of entertainment and the changing technologies of showing movies.

People young and old came to the last showing at the Dolphin.

In 2010, Rahim Manji started operating the Dolphin Theatre. Manji also operated the Hollywood 3 cinema in Surrey and Pitt Meadows theatre. For a look at the Hollywood 3 theatres he runs, click here. He has shown a wide variety of films over t the Dolphin but he mostly had family films showing for someplace in the neighborhood to bring the whole family to. Since that time, other theatres have closed down like the independently-owned Hollywood, Ridge and Denman and megaplexes like the Granville 7 and Station Square. Last year it was decided that a four-story mixed use development would be built on the area of the Dolphin. The project includes commercial space, residential units, and 11 wheelchair-accessible units for people with disabilities.

The Dolphin Theatre isn’t one in which I have been loyal to for a long time. Actually I just started liking it over last summer. I just decided to see We’re The Millers there one time because I wanted to see what all the buzz was all about. There had been times in the past i wanted to go there but distance and timing were almost always an issue. Finally I had my chance. It was a good theatre for those who just wanted to relax. Nothing grandiose. Nothing too styled up. Actually I think most of it has remained unchanged since it opened. As for the screen, they’d have an advertising system before the movies different from that of Cineplex or the other chain theatres. One more set for local theatres much like the one for the Rio Theatre, one of the last independent theatres in existence. Anyways I enjoyed the show and hoped to come back to see more.

Funny how it was only until then I realized how close I was to the theatre. Took me that long to figure out? Since that time I decided to go whenever a movie I wanted to see was showing. I would return weeks later to see Gravity. I remembered before the film, there were no trailers shown. Days later when I saw nothing on the website about anything upcoming there, I wondered if it was about to close. I researched the news and saw a story from months earlier of its fate in city hall. Anyways I was relieved the next day to learn movies were still being shown there. I also went to see Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games. I also tried a $2 Tuesday, one of the theatre’s big highlights, and saw Frozen with a couple of friends.

Then I heard the news when a friend posted the news story on her Facebook page. I was unhappy about it and I decided to go on its last day May 27th for its last showing: The Amazing Spiderman 2. I got there ten minutes before showtime but by then, I was too late. It was too long of a line and already it was filled with people who wanted to visit the Dolphin for the last showing. Rahim handed out passes for a free movie over at the two other Hollywood 3 theatres for those who couldn’t get in. Fortunately I was able to talk to Rahim. I told him I didn’t mind not seeing the show but I wanted to see the closing speech. He was willing to do so.

The crowd at the last showing was a mixed bag of people: young and old. I’m sure there were some that came to witness the last day of the theatre but for some in the audience, they came to be part of a theatre that they were appreciative of. I’m sure there were many from the neighborhood of North Burnaby who came that night, appreciative of a place that helped keep the local kids off the streets. Just before The Amazing Spiderman 2 was about to start, Rahim and his other co-workers stood at the front and he thanked the audience for coming to the last showing at the Dolphin. There were times he had to hold himself back. However he ended his speech mentioning that independent theatres in Vancouver are a dying breed. There are only three left. That was a hard truth but necessary to be mentioned at that time. I talked to him after his speech and I wished him well with the other two theatres.

It’s true about the problem of independent theatres in Vancouver. I already mentioned the problems at the beginning and of some that have closed down. However it’s not the only problem. Two years ago Burnaby had three movie theatres to go to: the Dolphin, Station Square and SilverCity at Metrotown. Station Square had to be closed down because of a land development taking place. Actually all but a few businesses on that chuck of land that was part of Station Square that included a Future Shop and a Save-On-Foods had to relocate themselves and make way for the whole area to be torn down for the development. They’re still doing construction to it right now. It’s almost two years. Now with the Dolphin closed there’s only the SilverCity at Metrotown. It’s a shame only one right now.

I actually found out there will be a new movie theatre opening up in the redevelopment of the Brentwood Town Centre. I consider that to be a plus for the city as it gives the kids someplace to go to. However Rahim saw it through an independent theatre point of view and is unhappy it will be one of those chain theatres. That was a good point. I only know of the Rio and the Dunbar being the only independent ones still standing. Sure there’s the VanCity and the Cinematheque but they are involved with film on a higher scale and have their own offices there.

It is a shame that I was only able to know the Dolphin Theatre for not even a year. Too bad it closed recently. Nevertheless I’m glad I had the chance to visit it when I did. Sure I wish I did it sooner. Sure I wish I could do it now. But I’m glad I had the chance.

Goodbye Dolphin Theatre. Thanks for the entertainment you’ve given the neighborhood over the years.

The Hollywood Theatre: Gone But Beloved By Many

3 June 20116 June 2011Jon The Blogcentric5 Comments

On the evening of May 29, 2011, I was at the Hollywood Theatre for their last double-bill showing. It was a bittersweet night with a huge attendance. The night not only marked the end of a Vancouver landmark as we know it but a family business too.

The Hollywood Theatre was opened in the West Broadway area of Vancouver back on Thanksgiving weekend of October 24, 1935. Reginald Fairleigh, a Vancouver cinema mogul, and his wife Margaret had the theatre built in the Great Depression so that her children could have jobs. At the time, there were already 26 other movie theatres in Vancouver. The theatre opened with the double-bill of Will Rogers in Life Begins At 40 and Thelma Todd in Lightning Strikes Twice. Tickets for the double-bills were a dime or 15 cents for a balcony seat. Men had to wear a tie and women had to wear a dress. A man tempted to make out with his lady was given a small sheet of paper saying, “Treat your date as if she were your mother.” Over time, many famous faces and many great movies graced the screen. Its tagline which existed until its last days was: “Pick O’ The Best Plays.”

Styles of movies changed and the theatre would face rivalries from television, pay-pre-view and VCR but the Hollywood continued success. Also in place even in present day were many things done back when it first started, like double-bills, taking straight cash at the ticket booth, and most importantly the Fairleigh family owning and operating the theatre. The closest thing to a big change was the start of the ‘odd double-bill’ back in 1990. This phenomenon started when My Left Foot and Rambo were aired one weekend. Some first thought it was a bad mix. It actually was a success because they attracted two completely different movie crowds that were both big in size. The ‘odd double-bill’ was kept up in many different versions in the years since.

Over the years, I’ve taken a liking to the Hollywood Theatre. Just a fact about myself: when I first moved to Vancouver from Winnipeg in February 2000, I was just a casual moviegoer with a general interest in movies for someone at my age. Nothing big. But after I saw American Beauty just days after I arrived in Vancouver, that movie and that year’s Oscar race to go with it changed my life.

Okay, going back to the Hollywood Theatre, I first saw a movie at the Theatre in 2001, shortly after moving to Vancouver from Winnipeg for the second time, and this time for good. I saw them as a second run movie theatre that played not just any movies for a second run but good ones too. I am unsure exactly what the first movie I saw there was. I’ve been asking myself ever since I learned of the closure what the first movie I saw there was; I believe it was Almost Famous. A few weeks later, I saw Gladiator. I came to like the theatre for its double-bills and for the best price of movie popcorn in town. Another thing I liked was their photocopied program of scheduled movies over a six-week period. I’d frequently pass by to pick one up. One noteworthy thing about the program is that in its brief review of the movie, they always had the director’s name and in bold. I consider that something. A couple of years ago, I came across the newspaper article hanging in a frame. I saw it was from 1935 and talked of the opening of the theatre. When I saw that I thought “Wow, 1935! This is definitely a piece of Vancouver history!”

Here’s some other excellent movies I saw over there: Mulholland Drive, City Of God, Downfall, Vera Drake, Lemony Snicket, Transamerica, American Gangster, Changeling, Tropic Thunder, Another Year, it’s just too hard to remember them all . Yeah, I saw a couple of bad ones and the odd guilty pleasure now and then too, but the Hollywood never let me down. The most unique ‘odd double-bill’ I went to had to be the pairing of Bridget Jones: The Age of Reason and Vera Drake. Two movies with a British female lead character: two completely different films of quality. The Hollywood was really convenient when it would show certain popcorn movies and ‘Oscar buzzers’ I always wanted to see but missed during its main theatre run. I’d always check the newspaper to see what the Hollywood was showing. I also remember leaving my second job, which ends at 9pm, to rush out and take buses to the Hollywood. Even if the movie ended before midnight or past midnight, I didn’t mind bussing back home that late.

Hollywood also consists of a few movie-going milestones of mine which I’m quite proud of. The first is seeing City Of God in the spring of 2003 before most would later discover this gem on DVD. The second is A Serious Man the night before the 2009 Oscar nominations were announced. It’s an Oscar-time tradition of mine to see all five, or now ten, Best Picture nominees and seeing A Serious Man the night before the nominations were announced completed it for me right there and then!

On Monday May 23rd, which is Victoria Day, I went to the Hollywood with my cousin to see Another Year. It had been months since I had been there. As much as I like the Hollywood, I like going when there’s a movie I like or a movie I want to see but haven’t. Such was the case that day. Before I entered the theatre, I learned from the ticket taker that they would be closing and that there would be a farewell party over the weekend. That was a shock to me as well as to her.

One of the reasons for the demise is because of the current difficulties of the single-screen neighborhood theatre. Nowadays if a movie theatre is to do well, it either has to be a multiscreen cinemaplex or connected to a shopping mall. In the past ten years, Vancouver has seen a lot of single screen theatres go and end up crushed for developers to construct something new. There’s the Varsity Theatre near the University of British Columbia that ended years ago and is now developed into condo land. There was recently the Van East which ended in January and has had its inside worked in for new development. Even triple theatres like the New West Theatre and multiplexes Langley’s Willowbrook cinema closed and were developed into something new. Some multiplexes like the Granville 7 constantly face threats of closure. Currently there are only six single screen theatres in Vancouver; the independently owned Rio Theatre and Dunbar Cinema; the Festival Cinemas-owned Ridge and Park Theatres; and the organization-oriented Pacific Cinematheque and Vancity Theatre.

Another reason for its demise over the years is now of the many ways one could see film and its current ability to be accessed at no cost on the internet. I don’t want to get into a tirade about how Napster and Netflix get people with a selfish sense they have a ‘right’ to free entertainment, but I will say that movie websites like Netflix has made it so easy and affordable for one to have all the online movies they want at a monthly rate, it’s not only hit theatres hard but video stores hard too. Plus so many ways to watch movies, especially those that happened in the last 10 years like Youtube, in your airline seat, on your smartphone and even on your wristwatch. Makes the original ‘other’ ways like television, pay TV and VCR seem old and tame.

In the days before its closing weekend, I contemplated when to go to the farewell weekend. I was first thinking of Sunday only, then both Friday and Sunday. Also I was confused of what exactly was happening. What I heard at first, I interpreted that there would be a party going on in the theatre and that there would be a piano playing with all the movies silent. My mind does play tricks on me. When I returned on Thursday to take some pictures of the outside, I talked with the ticket-taker: Vince Fairleigh, the fourth generation Fairleigh to work at the Hollywood wo had been taking my tckets all these years. I told him I would miss it. Also in terms of the weekend festivities, I was left thinking of the same ‘party’ that I heard about on Monday.

Friday the 27^th came and I was to go with my friend to that ‘party’. The ticket taker at the door was an elderly lady: grandmother Alice Fairleigh well into her nineties! By the time I got in, I saw the ending of Cinema Paradiso. It wasn’t exactly a party but a showing of movies with speeches. After Cinema Paradiso ended, there were some speeches from professional actor and family friend Mackenzie Gray and from David Fairleigh Jr., the last Fairleigh to run the Hollywood. He gave some words about what the theatre was like in the past, including the ‘treat your date’ etiquette. He also talked of the experience of watching the movie in a theatre and how the new modern ways like cellphone and wristwatch can’t compare. Then began the final feature of the ‘closing double-bill’ which I will refer to later in this article. As it began, I left to check out the balcony. As I was taking some pictures, I noticed the door to the projectionist room was open and with a guest. I went into the room as well. I met David Jr. and we talked more. I learned a lot about the theatre and of the projector they had. He said “I’m going to miss the place,” not looking for sympathy. Then I returned to my friend in the theatre, after being away for almost half an hour. When the movie ended, the curtain closed. I thought I’d probably see in close on Sunday for the last time. As I was leaving, I saw Alice in the ticket booth and took some photos of her. I left wondering how Sunday will be like.

Sunday May 29th was a night of goodbyes but no one was going to shed a tear. All the family was here: grandmother Alice, David Jr. and wife, and all the Fairleigh sons with their families. The theatre was near-packed for this night, the final night. The night began with some applause to individuals. Then there was something unique that hasn’t happened in many decades but happened all weekend: a silent movie accompanied by a pianist. The pianist was Johnathan Benny, award winning director and cinematographer and good friend of Vince’s. The silent movie was The Goat which Buster Keaton directed and starred in. Many would forget that’s what the Hollywood did back when it first started. Even though it opened while ‘talkies’ were just starting, there were silent movies showed then too. It was fun to see the old film again and hear the piano played at the time in the way it was done: playing accompanying the many humorous, bizarre, dramatic and romantic moments of the film.

After The Goat ended, there were some speeches from family members like Alice, Vince and David Jr. David’s was notable because again he made the mention of the experience of watching a movie on a theatre. Despite that day being a bittersweet day, he sang the Charlie Chaplin song ‘Smile’. Then began the first of the final weekend’s double-bill Cinema Paradiso: a 1989 Italian film about Salvatore, a successful director, reminiscing about growing up in a smalltown’s theatre and learning projection running and filmmaking from the projectionist who just died. He returns to his hometown for the funeral and witnesses the Cinema Paradiso blown up. Vince picked the movie because the movie practically is what his life was all about: growing up in a movie theatre. The scene of when the grown Salvatore enters the dead Cinema Paradiso before it was blown up seemed almost synonymous with the Hollywood that weekend. At the end, the audience gave a huge applause. Mackenzie gave more thank yous but asked us to return to see the final movie of the night: Faster.

I left for a break in the lobby, taking more pictures and talking to people, especially many of the Fairleigh family including Vince’s brothers. Then I returned to the theatre to see what would be the last movie shown at the Hollywood: Faster– an action movie about a revenge mission starring The Rock. It seems odd for the Hollywood Theatre to show Faster after Cinema Paradiso but the mix of two was ironically appropriate for the closing weekend because it was part of the ‘odd double-bill’ tradition. And a double-bill of Cinema Paradiso and Faster doesn’t get any odder than that. I didn’t care too much about Faster. In fact I found it like your typical action movie with heavy emphasis on the shootings and car chases and featuring wooden overdramatic acting. Nevertheless I wanted to be there for the Hollywood’s last minutes. As The Rock left the screen, he had the honor of being the last face to grace the Hollywood’s screen. After the credits finished rolling, the curtains didn’t close. Instead some people walked around the screen area and checked some of the rooms around the screen. I then went upstairs to the balcony and said goodbye to the Fairleighs and wished them the best of luck in the future and best of luck for the theatre.

On the evening of Monday the 29^th, the day after, I returned to the Hollywood. To my surprise, the neon lights were on. I saw the inside from the windows. Empty concessions, tables and chairs from the night, mop left out. Closings are never pretty. The future of the Theatre is a big question mark. I’ve been hearing a lot of tales about what will happen. Some say the developers want to either crush it or change it into something. I heard from others that Vince has partial ownership and that it will stay a theatre for at least five years. Despite all the talk of the possibilities for the Theatre, nothing was certain and closing weekend had to be treated like it was a goodbye. Since nothing’s really definite despite the fact I’m hoping for it to reopen, I took the closing weekend as that goodbye and I’ll let time decide what happens. I plan on bussing by at least once a week to see if there will be any changes and exactly what. I hope whatever they do, if the Theatre runs again, they keep the inside exactly as is. Many people on review websites have said that entering the theatre is like stepping back in time. How many present movie theatres do you know of that do that?

I do hope for the best for the Fairleighs. I do hope for the best for the Hollywood Theatre. I do hope the new owners take good care of the Theatre. I do hope the younger generation learns to appreciate watching movies in a theatre. In fact I’m glad they aired Cinema Paradiso for the final weekend because it’s considered by many to be a ‘love letter’ to movies and movie lovers. Until then, thank you Hollywood Theatre for the memories and the experience.