"Did we get enough Oscar films for you?" asked Mark Mazrimas, marketing director of Classic Cinemas, which owns the Lake Theatre, when we reached him last week. Oscar-rich indeed. Munich just left, but two other Best Picture nominees are currently playing, Brokeback Mountain and Capote. "If I were a betting person, I’d guess the winner will come from a film that played at the Lake," he said, a thinly veiled reference to The Lake’s annual pick-the-Oscars contest.
This is an interesting year for nominees, Mazrimas added. The budget for Munich, he noted, probably exceeds that of the other four nominees combined.
The Lake has several other films playing at the moment that received at least one Oscar nomination. Match Point, the Woody Allen film, is up for original screenplay, The New World received a nod for cinematography, and Judi Dench was nominated for her role in Mrs. Henderson Presents. "It’s an eclectic group of films," Mazrimas said. "If you can’t find something that appeals to you, we’re in trouble."
But the bigger news may be a change in ownership at the North Riverside Mall theaters. The Loews chain recently dropped them, and Village Theaters, a smaller chain out of Chicago, has picked them up. Loews was a large corporation with more clout and in the past squeezed the Lake out of some of the bigger releases. Distributors have the Chicago area "zoned" and the Lake formerly fell within the same district as North Riverside. "We want them to consider us a separate zone," Mazrimas said. If that happens, local film buffs may be the beneficiaries.
Then the Lake will have a new problem, he said. "People will be asking, ‘Why aren’t you showing everything?’" But that’s a problem Mazrimas doesn’t mind having.
Receipts from the holiday films, meanwhile, were up over last year. They offered a mix of adult and family films, and most turned out to be quite popular. The latest Harry Potter film, Chicken Little, Rumor Has It, and the Family Stone all played well, but the big winner was Narnia, Mazrimas said. It attracted a lot of families and school groups.
As for the Lake’s new digital projector, they’re looking for an encore to Disney’s 3-D film Chicken Little, but Mazrimas said the next one, Monster House, won’t be released until July. However, they’re planning to show a digital print of Disney’s Eight Below, starting Feb. 17. That’s not 3-D, he noted, but audiences should be able to tell a difference with the digital projector.
Bilingual ... and redundant
Spiro Papageorge, owner of Papaspiros Restaurant, began his remarks to the village board Monday night thus:
"Good Evening. Kali Spera. Which in Greek means, ‘Good Evening.’"
Logos seeking buyer?
Everyone hopes Logos Bookstore won’t close, but ... A store employee confirmed that staff members are asking regular customers if they would like to buy the business although the shop’s owner would not comment.
Lou Fabbri, one of the owners of the building, said he hasn’t heard from Logos about whether they will renew their lease set to expire at the end of May.
Logos, a Christian bookstore with gifts, cards and other items, is at 101 N. Oak Park Ave.
Fabbri said the topic of rent hasn’t been discussed, but that building owners were not looking to raise the rent.
"They’re a good tenant," he said.
It’s the infamous ‘seniority memory gap’
Viewpoints columnist Jim Bowman alluded to the $8 shirts he buys at The Gap (as in the clothing store) last week in his column as an intro to comments on The Gap (as in the minority student achievement gap). Worked very nicely only his wife reminded him (post-deadline) that he buys his $8 shirts next door at Old Navy, which may be more accurate, but doesn’t work nearly so well in a column. "I swear I didn’t fudge for the sake of phrasing," Bowman said in an e-mail last week, blowing the whistle on himself. He even signed off "Abashed on Ontario." Well, we believe him, mostly because we’ve been victimized by a Gap (as in the "senior moment" variety) or two ourselves lately.
The upshot is, don’t go to The Gap looking for cheap shirts.
