Screening movies for 30-plus years, Wilmington's Cinematique film series faces new challenges

On a Monday evening last December, a crowd of maybe 100 people gathered at Thalian Hall in downtown Wilmington to watch a movie at Cinematique. On this particular night the feature was "Tár," and the audience was treated to a tour de force performance by Cate Blanchett as a symphony conductor whose life spirals out of control, as well as to the film's immersive sound design and a curious, head-spinning ending that had people buzzing in the lobby afterwards trying to puzzle it all out.

Seeing a movie at Cinematique, usually an art film, a foreign film or an Oscar-hopeful prestige picture, and talking about it with friends or random audience members afterwards is a ritual that's been playing out in Wilmington for more than 30 years. The film series was founded in 1992 as a partnership between public radio station WHQR and the old St. John's Museum of Art, which is now the Cameron Art Museum.

After starting at the old College Road Cinemas across from UNCW, which has since been torn down, Cinematique showed its first film at Thalian Hall in January of 1996. It's been screening two-dozen-or-so movies a year there ever since.

"It's a community experience. The love of movies is so much better felt in a room full of people," said Mary Bradley, development director for WHQR. For the past 15 years, she's also been the station's Cinematique coordinator, serving as a liaison to Thalian Hall and helping book films there as part of a long-standing partnership between two of Wilmington's top cultural institutions.

Cinematique just announced its first slate of movies for 2022, and it includes the acclaimed "The Banshees of Inisherin" (Jan. 9-11) starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson and "Armageddon Time" (Feb. 13-15) starring Wilmington actor Banks Repeta. (A Q&A with Repeta will follow the 7 p.m. Feb. 15 screening; for a full list of upcoming Cinematique offerings, scroll to the end of this story.)

More: Banks Repeta, pride of WilmingtonWilmington actor Banks Repeta steps into spotlight for local premiere of 'Armageddon Time'

But while Cinematique's near-term future is set, the long-term outlook for showing art-house-style films on the big screen remains less certain, not just in Wilmington but nationwide.

In the past few years, of course, movie theaters in general have faced a host of unprecedented challenges, from the rise of streaming services to the pandemic, both of which have transformed the public's movie-going habits.

"COVID really hit the whole movie industry," Bradley said, noting that Cinematique took about a year off from showing films, although they did offer the streaming "Sofa Series" during the pandemic. In 2023, she said, they're looking to "re-establish our audience."

A brief history of Cinematique

Wilmington currently has three multiplex theaters with more than 40 total screens offering a variety of content. When Cinematique began in 1991, there were a half dozen or more movie theaters scattered around Wilmington and 20-some odd screens, and "it seemed like a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger was on every one of them," said Anne Brennan, director of Wilmington's Cameron Art Museum.

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At the time, Brennan worked at the predecessor to the Cameron, the old St. John's Museum of Art downtown. She said that Cinematique began with conversations between herself, former WHQR general manager Michael Titterton and the late Hilda Godwin, who owned a high-end dress shop downtown and was a great arbiter of the finer things.

Brennan said they talked about being frustrated with reading and hearing about all of these great films that never made it to theaters in Wilmington. Given that Wilmington was a film industry town even then, "We said, 'This makes no sense,'" Brennan said.

None of them had experience screening or promoting films, "We just wanted to see a good movie," Brennan said. "And, we wanted this to happen for the community."

In the course of researching how to start a film series in a time before Google, when business was conducted by phone or via snail mail, Brennan contacted a man in Asheville who ran an established series called − wait for it − Cinematique of Asheville.

"He opened all these doors for us," Brennan said, letting them use the Cinematique name and even their logo as a way of gaining the trust of film distributors who, in those days, would ship reels of films in giant canisters that organizers would then take to the theater and load onto projectors.

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According to research conducted by Matthew Johnson of Thalian Hall, who does work in the historic venue's archives, and to a note written to Mary Bradley of WHQR in 2011 by longtime Thalian Hall director Tony Rivenbark, who died in 2022, at least some Cinematique films screened in the early '90s at the old Cinema 6 on Oleander Drive, which has since been torn down. But the series definitely found its footing, and gained a following, at the old College Road Cinemas across from UNCW.

With St. John's sending out mailers and WHQR promoting the series on-air, the two institutions leveraged their respective memberships to start Cinematique. Early on they screened a mix of classic films ("Gone with the Wind," "Spartacus") and contemporary fare, art films like the screen adaptation of Chekhov's play "Uncle Vanya."

Cinematique even stirred up some controversy in 1995 when they screened "The Priest," a film that tackled the problem of pedophila in the Catholic church, and picketers showed up to protest in front of the theater.

By the mid-1990s, Brennan said, late St. John's/Cameron director Ren Brown decided the film series didn't fit with museum's mission, and WHQR began partnering with Thalian Hall, where the series moved in 1996 and has been ever since.

Brennan gives credit to Rivenbark for investing in equipment to screen films at Thalian over the years, initially installing a screen and film projector and, about 10 years ago, switching over to state-of-the-art digital projection in both the main and studio theaters. It would not be a stretch to say that, today, the films at Cinematique look and sound better than they ever have.

Brennan said the Wilmington community also deserves credit for keeping Cinematique going.

"They helped it take root, and took real ownership of it," she said. "Folks didn't write it off."

Facing challenges

Cinematique has faced challenges in the past, from the film snapping and full-on projector breakdowns (back when movies were screened on film) to trying to get people out to the theater early in the week. Its films have traditionally run Monday through Wednesday, in part for Thalian to have programming on non-weekend nights, with the biggest crowds usually on Wednesday.

Still, Cinematique has persevered for more than three decades, building an audience and becoming Wilmington's de facto arthouse cinema thanks to the winning mix of high-quality films shown in a high-quality-setting: the ornate beauty of Thalian Hall. As noted by a Gallup poll released in 2022, however, movie attendance in general hit historically low numbers in 2021, with three in five people not seeing a movie in the theater at all.

The prestige pictures and Oscar hopefuls Cinematique tends to screen have faced especially tough sledding with audiences. A New York Times story from December put the box office drop for "highbrow" films in stark terms, calling it "carnage" and noting that attendance at these types of films had not bounced back as expected after the pandemic. Well-reviewed movies including "Tár," which played Cinematique last month, and "Armageddon Time," which plays in February, have fallen millions of dollars short of recouping their budgets. (There are also success stories, like upcoming Cinematique film "Banshees of Inisherin," which has posted solid box office numbers.)

Bradley said Cinematique attendance lately has been steady, but is definitely down from past years. The rise of streaming is part of that, she said, as is the fact that, increasingly, people can see many of the movies that play Cinematique on a streaming service, or at other Wilmington movie theaters, before they reach Thalian Hall. (A notable exception is the upcoming Feb. 20-24 screening in Thalian Hall's studio theater of Oscar-nominated short films; Cinematique will likely be the only place in Wilmington to see those.)

"Right now, it's our hardcore movie people," Bradley said, adding that audiences are "maybe skewing a little younger" since the pandemic, a hopeful sign that a new generation has discovered Cinematique.

Working for the past 15 years with Adam Birnbaum from the Avon Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut, who books for many indie theaters nationwide, Bradley said she strives to program "a nice mix" that will serve both art film buffs as well as the more casual moviegoer. "It's a hard balance to find."

Music and concert films tend to do well, she said, like the recent David Bowie documentary "Moonage Daydream," which made sitting in Thalian Hall feel like a rock concert. The Cinematique audience has also traditionally turned out for anything with English accents, like "Downton Abbey," and the biggest Cinematique hit of all time might still be 1996's "The English Patient," which drew over 3,600 patrons to the 546-seat theater over the course of its run, which was extended due to demand.

Cinematique used to show more independent films, but they no longer screen many "real indie films, just because video-on-demand is so prevalent now," Bradley said.

Despite recent challenges, however, she remains optimistic about Cinematique being able to find its future niche.

"Even given the state of the industry, we think it's an important public service," Bradley said. "We hope to keep it going for another 30 years."

WANT TO GO?

What: Cinematique of Wilmington film series, sponsored by public radio WHQR and Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts.

When: Most screenings are 7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, with an additional 4 p.m. Wednesday matinee, unless otherwise noted. See below for scheduled films and dates.

Where: Thalian Hall, 310 Chestnut St., Wilmington.

Info: Tickets are $9.63.

Details: 910-632-2285 or ThalianHall.org.

SCHEDULE

Jan. 9-11: "The Banshees of Inisherin"

Jan. 16-18: "Decision to Leave"

Jan. 30-Feb. 3: "Aftersun" (in Thalian Hall's studio theater, with additional 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday screenings Feb. 2-3)

Feb. 13-15: "Armageddon Time" (Q&A with Wilmington actor Banks Repeta, who stars in the film, after the 7 p.m. Feb. 15 screening)

Feb. 20-24: Oscar-nominated short films (in Thalian Hall's studio theater, with additional 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday screenings Feb. 23-24)

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Cinematique of Wilmington film series announces 2023 movies at Thalian