A FAREWELL TO THE LANDMARK

The Landmark Theatre on Pico closed its doors yesterday.

That's sad.

Growing up in a city where there were several options to see independent cinema, listen to jazz, eat pizza and get a real bagel or Chinese food; the transition to Los Angeles back in 1991 remains painful. Yeah there's the weather and sports starts earlier here (don't have to watch Mets games starting at 10PM) but that's about it. Going to see independent films in Los Angeles required a bit of a schlep but it was generally worth it.

The Landmark and the Laemmle Town Center or Royal were our go to theatres. Before the pandemic we would go virtually every weekend and, in retirement, during the week where we were often surrounded by ten or so people. When the world changed, out movie consumption changed with it. We were not alone in this and now our favorite theatre is gone.

The Landmark had around 8 or 9 screens including one set up as a living room with couches. We saw "Lambert & Stamp" in that venue. It was awesome.

The attendants were friendly and helpful and the popcorn was fresh. They would have someone introduce every movie and the audience would always applaud. You came up the escalator (the theatre was on the second and third floors of a shopping mall) to the lively main area. We would often run into people we knew. For some reason we would see Henry Winkler there quite often. I would remind him that I sent him an entire season of 24 when he was working in Europe. It was a community.

What I especially liked about The Landmark was it was the first place you could see the newest independent films, often a week or so before they would spread to the Laemmles. It was always  a "be the first kid on your block" experience to see films like "Moonlight", "Lady Bird", "Whiplash" or "Phoenix" there.

My favorite story was going to see "La La Land" the night it opened (one of the few venues in LA). We were walking out in front of an elderly couple. The woman calmly asked her husband what he thought of the movie and he shouted in that cranky old man voice "I HATED IT". We all got a good laugh.

When we first started going to The Landmark there was a Barnes and Noble connected to it and that became part of the experience. That shut down as well as the Nordstroms which occupied the mall's east side of Westwood Ave. The whole area eventually became a ghost town.

And now it's gone. Maybe we should have made more of an effort to head down to Pico and support it (our local independent theatre also closed down recently) once it became a bit safer and we were triple vaxxed but we didn't. So I'll just say thank you to all who created a comfortable venue for independent films.

Hopefully others will fill the void.