It looks like Anjelika's parent company gave up on Houston before they even closed their theater. They didn't even blame it on the landlord.
I don't know about that. Anjelika's parent company must have had some notice. They wouldn't talk to anybody about the lack of AC in Anjelika a few weeks ago.
Last month, Angelika's parent company, Reading Intl, anounced an IRS tax settlement for a case from 1997 for $14 mil. The shutting down of the Angelika film center is interesting timing. I think Anjelika's problems have more to do with the parent company than the landlord.
Oops. I forgot the link to the Securities and Exchange Commision website for the press release. Here you go. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/716634/000071663410000015/exhibit99_1.htm
LOL. I'm sure the arts community in Houston will forge on..... I wonder how many people in this thread sounding the alarm that Houston has all the sudden lost it's culture have even been to this place.
Some of us have been several times and never said "Houston has all the sudden lost it's culture." This is just a sad incident in the cultural histroy of the city. It will be replaced in one fashion or another. I don't see anything wrong with being sad about it's passing. I'll never forget having a great dinner Downtown and then watching Inside Deep Throat at the Angelika with my significant other. Didn't sit in a sticky seat, didn't see any critters. In fact, we had a very nice time. The after movie party was one for the books!
dude, seriously. houston has a cultural audience of a couple hundred. it's has always been pathetic. if that's okay with you then i agree.
let me temper my last post. i love houston. i am, to this day, inspired by it. i am also particularly needy as it comes to culture. there can never be too much of it and any reduction in it's quantity or quality is an absolute tragedy.
I probably went about 3-4 times a year when they have a movie that isn't in other theaters. I'm not pissed about "the arts community" or whatever (I'm far from an arts-caring person), I'm pissed that if there's an independent film I want to see, my only option is a 3-screen s**thole near my apartment called Landmark River Oaks -- a tiny theater that I've been to only twice and doesn't get nearly everything that the Angelika would. THAT'S what I am pissed about. The unfortunate fact is that theaters showing independent films just don't get as much business here in Houston. Perhaps the Angelika's location wasn't the best (though I never had a problem with it), but it was never really full and as above articles/posts have indicated, they just weren't making enough money to maintain it. The River Oaks almost got bulldozed back in 2006, too.
Yeah same with me... The only time I get to see something indie/art-house/foreign film nowadays with the Angelika no longer in business, is the Fantastic Fest held in Austin every year...
On the Arts community: I think it is a mistake to think monolithically about the Houston arts scene. A trip to the Alley, the Wortham, TUTS, MFAH, etc. is a different meta-experience than going to the Angelika. Those places are well-heeled, with nice facilities, you can dress up and feel wealthy and cultured. You can entertain clients, do some networking, impress a date, celebrate your promotion to VP. Angelika doesn't have nice facilities, it's not wealthy or endowed, you can't feel like a hot-shot because they've put your name on a plaque there. You can feel cultured in an alternative sort of way, but not wealthy, and you'll be rubbing elbows with the hoi polloi. So, they weren't getting their patronage from the same customer-base that the high-culture outfits were getting theirs. And, its loss won't be a blow to that cultural scene. It is a bit of a culture-scene loss, but I wouldn't talk about it in the same conversation as the high-culture scene Schlumberger and Hogg and all the oil companies brought in. You must be thinking of some other Houston.
money follows culture, not the other way 'round. and yes, i'm strange, but i know what i'm talking about.
I will do the same. I am not happy that this place closed, although I've never been there (indie films ain't my gig). In a perfect world, places like this would always stay open and add character to the city, which I'm totally down for. I just get defensive when people come in as if on auto-pilot and start saying that Houston isn't cultured. You can say a lot of derogatory things about Houston, but that's not one of them. How would you explain the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet, the Houston Grand Opera, the Alley Theater, the Hobby Center, Da Camera of Houston, the Wortham Center, Opera in the Heights, etc. And those are just the obvious examples that everyone has heard of. There are countless other smaller examples that I'm leaving out that don't involve a pile of money (Batman Jones? Hello?). EDIT: Juan beat me to it.
If money follows culture, then obviously the one has something to do with the other. What is culture?
