For more than 20 years, E Street Cinema was one of the city’s best movie theaters, showcasing independent and international films, as well as more mainstream fare. Landmark, which owns it, closed the place down for good over the weekend. It’s just the latest of many losses for DC’s filmgoing scene. We called New York magazine and Vulture film critic Bilge Ebiri, who grew up in Rockville and spent his teen years inside local theaters, to talk about a few he particularly misses.
Uptown Theater
3426 Connecticut Ave., NW
“It’s one of the best theaters anywhere, really, and also kind of a legendary one. Sometimes you’d go see a movie just because it was playing at the Uptown. The movie I will always associate with the Uptown is The Last Emperor, which is one of my favorite films. I went to see it nine times at the Uptown. I loved going there after school and sitting four or five rows back, being completely enveloped. I was so struck by how impressive and spectacular everything seemed on such a huge screen. If I ever get in a time machine, on the list right after, like, killing baby Hitler and killing baby Pol Pot, is to go watch The Last Emperor one more time in the Uptown.”
KB Cinema
5100 Wisconsin Ave., NW
“From the outside, you would never guess what an elegant space it was. It was a huge screen, huge theater. I saw Empire of the Sun there many, many times, which came out in 1987 around the same time as The Last Emperor. There was a certain period where, after school, I would alternate between Empire of the Sun and The Last Emperor. I got into the habit of going to a movie after school because my parents didn’t get home until relatively late, and I could go, you know?”
KB Paris at Mazza Gallerie
5300 Wisconsin Ave., NW
“It wasn’t a huge screen, and it was in a mall, obviously, so it wasn’t an old, elegant picture-house-type theater, but they did screen certain things in 70 millimeter. The movie I will always associate with that theater is Gillian Armstrong’s High Tide, one of my favorite movies. The Washington Post gave it kind of a mixed review, but I remember thinking, ‘This sounds really interesting.’ My other memory of Mazza Gallerie is trying to see the movie Gaby: A True Story, which was R-rated. I was 14 or something, and it’s the only time I’ve ever been turned away from a movie for not being the right age.”
Biograph
2819 M St., NW
“That was a great theater for art-house releases and revivals. That year, I was really into [Last Emperor director] Bernardo Bertolucci, and that’s where I saw his 1900 for the first time, which was a really, really big deal for me. I remember you’d go there and people would be yelling at the screen. It was a rowdy theater. Now that I’m a middle-aged film snob, I don’t want anybody yelling at the screen, but I loved it as a teenager. I was like, ‘This is great! These are my people.’ ”
Rob Brunner grew up in DC and moved back in 2017 to join Washingtonian. Previously, he was an editor and writer at Fast Company and other publications. He lives with his family in Chevy Chase DC.
