The Harvard Exit Theatre

The Harvard Exit Theatre
Category: Cinema
Neighborhood: Capitol Hill
Update - 4/3/2012
Probably Seattle's most unique movie theater, housed in the 120-year-old Women's Century Club, the Harvard Exit makes movie-going something much more than entertainment. Nestled on the edge of the historic Harvard-Belmont District--where I grew up as a child--and directly opposite the Loveless "Cottages," the Harvard Exit has been showing independent, foreign, and art films for over half a century.

The parlor has been lovingly preserved, and one really has the feeling that one has been transported back a century.

While Seattle's old movie palaces have all been demolished to make way for parking lots and office towers (with the exception of the Paramount and 5th Avenue), the much less ostentatious Harvard Exit on Capitol Hill has so far escaped the wrecking ball.

The pre-fab movie theater complexes of today like Meridian 16, etc. simply don't hold a candle to the Harvard Exit, the Egyptian, and a few others.

As it turns out, this year's Oscar winner for Best Picture, "The Artist," a silent black-and-white film made by French film-makers, has been at the Harvard Exit for several months.

How fitting and special that the Harvard Exit show a film that is an affectionate throw-back to the films of the Silent era. Without special digital effects or violence, the movie marvelously tells a story without any words spoken.

This is a good film that the Harvard Exit might want to show on weekends once the regular run of "The Artist" ends.

http://movies.nytimes....

http://www.capitolhill...

Too bad Americans are scared to death of silence. And art, history--anything predating Elvis, that is), among other things.
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1/3/2007
The Harvard Exit has been housed since 1971 in the Women's Century Club, itself built in 1925. It was the first art film house to open in Seattle, a distinction it shares with the Grand Illusion in the U. District. (My sister was one of the first ushers here before she matriculated at Brown; she loved working there).

It was purchased eventually by the Landmark Theatre group but still operates mostly the way it has since its inception, with the addition of another movie screen.

In some ways comparable is the Seven Gables (also in the U. District), but I find the screen similar to a long train car: viewing movies there is like sitting in a tunnel and watching images flickering at the far end,,,

It is probably my favorite movie theater in Seattle for several reasons:

(1) The wonderful "parlor" style lobby with its early 20th c. decor and furnishings, nearly all retaining the originals; large Palladian windows with Venetian blinds.

Most movie theaters do NOT have a lobby-parlor of this kind. Once the movie gets out, YOU get out, too, simply because there is NOWHERE to linger--unless your idea of a good place to talk and relax is to sit next to a wall of pinball machines.

(2) The building itself looks out across Roy to the clubhouse of the D.A.R (Daughters of the American Revolution), the Loveless building with its charming shops, and the original buildings of Cornish College of the Arts. It marks the informal "entrance" to the historical Harvard-Belmont district, something non-Seattleites (or at least non-North Capitol Hill residents) probably would not know.

(3) The quality programming (which currently includes the film version of "The History Boys" and "The Queen," both outstanding British releases.

One of the first and most memorable movie moments when I saw Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Conformist" with Jean Louis-Trintignant and Dominque Sanda when it opened the flood of art house, foreign film that began at that time (at least for me) and led to the independent films that seem to carved a large niche of movie-going today.

I can't count the number of fine films I have seen here that would never have been shown at the multiplex.

The only regret that I have is that the refreshment stand has been moved from the entrance lobby into the living room, as the staff tends to be pretty obstreperous and not really aware that others might not share their sense of humor.

That said, I enjoy spending a half an hour after a movie is over on a rainy afternoon and enjoying some moments of serenity--it sure beats Starbuck's for atmosphere, in my opinion.

Let's hope, perhaps against all odds, that the building is not demolished soon and a 6-story retail-with-condos-a bove or a multiplex cinema doesn't take its place.

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