Leading Ladies

I thought about writing this whole blog in Spanish in honor of two of the current films at a/perture, Broken Embraces and The Maid, but then I realized the extent of my language abilities was Brendan Fraser learning how to say "The cheese is old and moldy" in Encino Man. Thank goodness A Serious Man is playing so I can still write in my native tongue. Although if you do go see the Coen Brothers film, and notice subtitles at the open, don't panic and think we started the wrong movie. It has a scene at the beginning that I'm still trying to decipher and understand how it fit in with the rest of the film. How's that for a ringing endorsement? I promise it's good.

One of the first films that Lawren had high hopes of bringing to town was Broken Embraces. You might recall her first takeover of the blog, which had a picture of her and Lluis Homar at the Toronto International Film Festival (I've resurrected it so you don't have to go searching). I've also attached a photo of Lluis with co-star Penelope Cruz. I'll let you be the judge of which leading lady looks better on Lluis's arm...

This is the part where I'm supposed to say "Come on, Lawren looks better with Mr. Homar than Penelope Cruz", but IT'S PENELOPE CRUZ! This is the part where I ask our readers if anyone has a spare couch for me. Just kidding honey, you're waaaayy hotter than Penelope. She's not even in my top ten of free passes. I really should stop before I get in more trouble.

This weekend we add The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, directed/written by author Rebecca Miller to the rotation. With an all-star cast including Robin Wright Penn, Blake Lively (who may or may not be on that free pass list), Winona Ryder, Monica Bellucci, Maria Bello, Alan Arkin, and Keanu Reeves (best work still Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure), forget about the supposed snow/wintry precipitation and enjoy the warmth of our theaters.



Wait, they make movies out of books? I was sure that movies had to come first after watching George Lucas bastardize the Star Wars franchise with all the subsequent novellas (wikipedia, what do you not know??)

Everyone wants to go on forever, I just wanna burn out hard and bright...

Like our lamphouse. What was already a dreary, gray day out (which should have been perfect for seeing a movie) got a little darker when s/tudio 1 lost power right as The Messenger kicked off at 12:20. A thousand apologies to everyone whose plans were disrupted by our malfunction, but we felt like we came up with the most diplomatic solution by replacing the 5:20 screening of An Education with the film that had been dark all day. If it makes you feel any better, our own son was ashamed of us after hearing what had happened. Exhibit A:

But I'm turning all emo schoolgirl on you, and whining about all the things that have gone wrong, when in fact things have been going even better than we could have hoped. There was a great piece in this week's YES! Weekly chronicling our open, and highlighting all the wonderful comments we've gotten on our facebook page. We thought it would be at least a month before we'd have to change out our chalkboard question, but you all made us do it after a week.

We are down to one studio for the time being, but working our darndest to be back at full operation ASAP. So tomorrow's schedule is a little different, so if you know someone who was planning on coming out for a film, let them know that we've added a 3:20 to try and give Winston it's fair shake of The Messenger, and that An Education is showing at 5:40. The late weekday show (8:00) will be The Messenger again. It's a holiday, so come out and see us early!

Our doors are open (but we're getting a brand new one tomorrow)

Wow. What else can I say? We tried to sneak opening up a movie theater past you guys this weekend and we failed miserably. It probably didn't help that Lawren was everywhere last week (WXII, the Winston-Salem Journal, etc.), but I should have known better than to think we could pull one over on the fine people of Winston-Salem. You all came out and shared some great movies with us and we were humbled by your comments and well wishes. Many of you were also introduced to the awesomeness that is the Yummy Goodness Bake Shoppe and their "Cakeballs" and "Cupcake Parfaits". The first weekend could not have gone any better. Who am I kidding, it was chaos back there. A few of you may have seen firsthand why I complain about the Point-of-Sale system everyday. Our ability to do math in our head was tested constantly. We almost ran out of wine on Friday. The speakers almost fell off the wall (not really, but they were buzzing pretty loud at the beginning of one of the shows). But our crackpot staff of concessionaires (Anna, Jordan, Megan, and Mike) along with our projectionists (Nate, Patrick, Scott, and Tony), under the leadership of Genevieve and Lawren, never cracked. And they're ready to do it all again this weekend. Starting this Friday, An Education starts its second week, and The Messenger comes to Winston (before Greensboro!). There's still time to catch A Town Called Panic! and NY, I Love You, so don't miss out!

No time for words....well maybe just a few

There are only 3o minutes left until January 8, 2010....these are perhaps my last minutes of calm before we open the doors of a/perture tomorrow. Jigar is busy making journal entries and double-checking his favorite POS system, so the curator is back at the helm. I am getting a bit sentimental as I sit here thinking about tomorrow. It really has been such an incredible adventure. As I sat in the theaters with my staff, test screening our opening films earlier tonight, I realized what a long road it has been and how it has all been TOTALLY worth it. I have to use this opportunity to thank everyone who has been so supportive of a/perture and the idea of bringing a small indie theater to downtown Winston-Salem. I never thought so many people would be this excited and I hope we live up to all your expectations. We will sure try our best to! As much as the recent press has focused on me, I really could not have done any of this without my wonderful family. My dad has hammered and nailed and glued and worked miracles on a low budget making things look spectacular. My mom has babysat on a moments notice and run errands and become a pro at laminating things. My sister-in-law, Jigna, has now become a part-time au pair/marketing intern/concessionaire/translator,etc.etc. My brother Jay, pushed a pallet-jack back and forth across fourth street in lunch time traffic and is always promoting a/perture on facebook. My sister-in-law, Katie, has also contributed babysitting hours which you can probably tell by now is a very important job. My in-laws, Sam and Sheela, endured Chuck-e-Cheese last week when Jake spent a week with them so that we could spend every waking hour getting things ready at a/perture. My son has made me laugh and really appreciate every single time he says that he wants to go "downtown." (And thanks to Nigel too, just for being a dog.) And last but not least, I have to thank Jigar. He has been at many times a "silent" partner and let me enjoy most of the glory and that is why I love him. I could go on thanking a slew of others, but I will save that for another day because I should probably get some sleep. Below are some recent pictures. For those of you who plan to come opening weekend, we look forward to your patronage!

And check out this video from our open house....