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| Bridge to nowhere. (Penn Almanac) |
Oh, the Bridge . Oh house of “cinema de lux” that sits cozily between Marbar and the Rotunda. I don’t care if you go out of your way to make the interior decor look nouveau and sleek. You don’t fool me. Any given Friday, a generic blend of pop thrillers, gory horror, and low brow comedies grace your screens. Your assigned seating scheme screams grade school, and your movies bore me to tears.
Since Penn booted its rival Cinemagic off the campus two years ago, the Bridge has reigned exclusively over University City ticket sales. Since then, college audiences (and our University City neighbors) have been forced to watch the crappiest films for top-of-the-line prices.
And it’s not just the quality of some of the films that irks me — it’s the Bridge’s unflinching adherence to mediocrity. I mean, this is the theater that didn’t play Babel , a repeated Oscar nominee. I don’t need the silly amenities — I mean, who uses wifi in a movie theater? And my derriere doesn’t need plush leather seating.
What I do need is quality independent cinema — not generic big budget films. And unless I plan to hightail it down to the Ritz , I’m pretty much out of luck in that department. Of course, the Bridge does occasionally cave in and screen a few movies for the Philadelphia Film Festival, but its year round offerings of innovative films are scarce.
And what about all the Bollywood fans out there? Come on. When was the last time you saw a foreign film playing at the Bridge? We probably have more private showings of Honk Kong action flicks and Bollywood hits than any other square mile in the city. Walk out into West Philadelphia, and you’ll see several Indian or Pakistani grocery marts offering their own video rentals. If a market exists for foreign films, then our local movie theater should take advantage of it.
Places like International House and groups like the Penn Cinema Association have stepped in to fill the gap. DVD rental places are ubiquitous on campus. As the only movie theater servicing University City, the Bridge should cater to the diverse tastes of university audiences.
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April 4th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
bollywood films at the bridge? all that would result in would be bullet holes in the screen.
April 4th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
This sounds like stereotypical Indie Kid complaining. Instead of trying to assert that the Bridge should just open up its tastes, the author maligns the movies already shown there as “mediocre,” “low brow,” “bore me to tears,” crap while independent films are necessarily “quality.” Do more than just throw negative adjectives and descriptions at mainstream, popular culture and prop up more obscure art forms as being of superior taste just because. (and liking the Ritz simply for being the Ritz). There’s nothing wrong with having an opinion contrary to most others, but if you want to be taken seriously, don’t just bash the mainstream (and therefore indirectly those who enjoy it) for simply being the mainstream.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I agree with the article, but you’ve got to assume that they are making money with the fare they offer seeing as how it’s continuing. The Bridge is the only theater in the area, so they’re not just catering to Penn students. And even if it were just Penn students, you can’t assume that other people have similar taste in movies. Look at how popular Napoleon Dynamite, Wedding Crashers, and Zoolander were. I’m not trying to bash those movies, but they aren’t exactly intended for the Oscars. That said, I am deeply disappointed that they played Premonition (I think for more than one week) but never Babel or Pan’s Labyrinth. At least they’ve got 300, though.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
assigned seating? it was free seating each and every time i’ve watched a movie there, but that’s about 3 so don’t mind me!