Finding a Quality Movie Theater via "Cinema Treasures"

For approximately a century, films were meant to be seen on big screens. To this day, sitting in a movie theater remain far and away the best way to watch movies. However, finding a quality screen in an era of cookie-cutter plexes and indifferently maintained local theaters is a trying exercise. Further, one wonders if the era of HD screens and streaming access will accelerate the trend toward fewer, and lower quality, movie theaters and a parallel degradation of visual taste.

Fortunately, movie going remains a stubborn habit, especially for whom film offers an enriching experience. One can only suppose that was a reason why the Criterion Collection's Facebook site recently posted information about Cinema Treasures.

According to the Cinema Treasures website, it offers access to information about 30,000 theaters in the United States and elsewhere in the world. It provides useful news and interesting photos of movie venues, as well as a blog. The site is a brainchild of Patrick Crowley, whose resume includes A-list production credits (such as the quartet of Bourne movies), and UCLA Cinema and Media Studies Ph.D. Ross Melnick. The latter founder also co-authored a 2004 book titled, well, Cinema Treasures, which explores "the cultural and industrial history of theatrical motion picture exhibition in the United States from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century," according to culturaltreasures.org. (A different, thoughtful perspective on Melnick's work with students is available via UCLA's "Graduate Student Profile.")

Thanks to Criterion for publicizing Cinema Treasures. The above photo shows the interior of New York's Ziegfeld Theatre, housing arguably the city's premier movie screen and viewing venue. The photo originally appeared online in cinematreasures.org.