Where I Was Friday Night

In previous years, a fair chunk of my summer was spent attending the Silent Summer Film Festival, which ran for six weeks at the historic, rundown-but-lovely Portage Theater. At the end of last year's festivities, I fretted over the future of that movie house, as it was up for sale and the most likely buyer appeared to be a North Side church.

The church withdrew, much to the delight of Portage fans everywhere. Delight turned to horror, however, when the theater was subsequently purchased by the owner of the Congress Theater, which has long been in poor repair and has suffered many issues with its security (most infamously a rape immediately outside the theater on New Year's Eve a couple of years ago).

So this past spring, when the local alderman opposed the transfer of the existing liquor license to the new owner, said new owner displayed a mature, reasoned response: He padlocked the Portage's doors that same day. The theater has been closed ever since. (Because a movie theater can't operate without a liquor license, right? Oh, wait...it totally can.) The official website just says "Movie and Music Theater operator coming soon."

This sudden closure not only caused events on the immediate horizon to be cancelled (there was a horror film fest scheduled for the next day, which would have required no liquor whatsoever), but endangered future events--like the Silent Summer Film Festival.

The good news? The Silent Film Society of Chicago found a new venue for their fest.

The bad news? The new venue was in Des Plaines, one of Chicago's northwest suburbs. The Portage was one short bus ride away. The Des Plaines was much farther off, but fortunately has a Metra train station across the street. Unfortunately, the southbound train leaves the station at 9: 44 p.m.--before any of the movies would be over. The next train headed south? 12:59 a.m.

So I would not be spending this summer indulging my love of silent cinema. However, I still wanted to go to at least one show this year, so I needed someone with a car. Mr. E was kind enough to volunteer his automobile and mad driving skillz, and so he, JB and I headed northwest from the city to the comparative wilds of Des Plaines.

According to te ever-awesome Cinema Treasures website, the Des Plaines Theater opened on August 9, 1925 as a movie/Vaudeville venue and in recent years had shown Indian films off and on. I once interviewed for a job just up th street from the Des Plaines and remembered thinking it looked pretty (if somewhat time-worn). Friday night, I got to see the inside.

It's a lovely theater--smaller than the Portage, but with the same pipe organ and sound system. Faust looked and sounded wonderful, the crowd was large and enthusiastic, and the popcorn was terrific.

Even so, I hope that the Society finds a venue within the city limits for next year's fest--maybe the Patio Theater, if ever they can get their air conditioning situation sorted out.

At least I got to attend one night of this years festival, with good friends and a classic of German Expressionism. Here's to hoping we don't have to trek so far next year.