Sitting along 13th street in a squat complex of buildings that looks like a church, built in 1925 as a wedding chapel, it brought couples together until the 1960s. Then it split them apart, this time as a mortuary. Now it entertains them as the Bijou Art Cinema.
Here you can go off the beaten path (cinematically speaking) and see the films that aren’t full of pouting Hollywood stars and rampant explosions. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Documentaries and indie films are abound within the hallowed walls of the Bijou. Not only that, but there are frequent film festivals taking place at the Bijou, such as the Cinema Pacific film festival that brought Chinese film star Daniel Wu to the University. @@http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu/@@
“There’s been a lot of stories published about how the theater is haunted. But I’ve worked here forever, alone, on a lot of dark nights and I’ve never had any creepy experiences,” Edward Schiessl, co-owner of the Bijou says. “I worked at the McDonald, and had a lot of weird vibes there, but never here at the Bijou.”
Be that as it may, you can still see the classic silent film “Nosferatu” during Halloween night. @@http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013442/@@
A second theater bearing the origin of the Bijou will also be opening sometime soon. Clearly, somebody is doing something right over there.
Sometime ago, when entering you would be greeted by an enormous theater cat lounging on the seats in the lobby taking love from all who passed. Though the cat has since shuffled off his mortal coil, the theater still has the reputation of being something different.
If you crave stories of character and plot, with an underdog style, the Bijou Art Cinemas are where it’s at.