Curtains For Bank Of America Cinema This Saturday

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 15, 2010 5:00PM

Last Saturday night we headed out into the wind-driven sleet and caught the westbound Irving Park bus. At Cicero/Milwaukee we disembarked. Having some time to kill, we had dinner at Hong Kong Loo and then did some window shopping around the corner at Sears. And then, at 7:30, we walked over to 4901 West Irving Park Road to catch Mickey One, the second-to-last screening at the Bank of America Cinema, where movies have been shown since 1972.

The movie itself, a preposterously arty thriller wherein Warren Beatty flees the Mob (who represents Death, or something), wasn't that good, but it was bad in a unique way. And what was also unique was the very fact that we were watching it in the second-floor auditorium of a bank building, a screening room with excellent sound and picture that was packed with families and other neighborhood residents.

That comes to an end this Saturday, when BofA Cinema closes its season with Babes in Toyland. The building, which was sold by its owner, will be closed. Its fate remains uncertain--there's always the chance it could reopen, but the pessimist in us says that a wholesale teardown or condo conversion is more likely. In any case, programmer Mike Phillips and the rest of the crew will be starting a new film series called the Northwest Chicago Film Society in February, around the corner at the Portage Theater. But the screenings will be held Wednesday nights, not Saturdays; and although they'll undoubtedly be wonderful, it won't quite be the same.

Mike King, a previous programmer for BofA Cinema, has penned a lovely remembrance at CINE-FILE:

But as much as the Bank’s curators have cherished resurrecting oddball titles and overlooked directors, they were just movies. More than anything, the Bank was a throwback to an even earlier time, when movie theaters were social hubs for the surrounding community. People don’t show up at the AMC River East hours before every single show to talk with friends that they made there, and then hang around talking afterwards until the last possible minute, when the programmer sends them home. This happened without fail, before and after every Bank show I ever worked, and is ultimately what I’ll miss most about the place: the feeling that the movies were incidental.

Worth reading in its entirety, it's a moving tribute to a special place, and a dying art.

Babes in Toyland screens Saturday at Bank of America Cinema, 4901 West Irving Park Road, 8 p.m., $5