The late-night film and live performance event, “FreakFest,” transformed the Bijou Art Cinemas into a circus sideshow last weekend. Members of Circus Pandemonium danced with fire, performed balancing acts and greeted moviegoers with five-foot snakes before the showing of “Freaky Circus Guy,” an hour-long documentary about a man who starts a circus sideshow.
The late-night features at the Bijou, located four blocks west of campus at 492 E. 13th Ave., play every Friday through Sunday starting at about 11:30 p.m. and give new meaning to “just another night at the movies.”
Last week’s showing of “Noiseferatu,” for example, featured in-theater video mixing by The Jircs and a live soundtrack by Warning Broken Machine and Sean Mediaclast, along with an on-mic performance by New York’s MC Dracula.
“We sold about 80 tickets to that one, and had about 15 or 20 others in there working,” night manager Scott McGahan said. “The place was packed.”
McGahan said the crowd size varies from a packed house to just a handful for the midnight movies, and the crowd is generally made up of about half college students and half Eugene locals.
The Bijou also selected from cult classics, like “A Clockwork Orange,” and local productions, like the upcoming “Invoid of Reverence,” to be shown this Saturday and Sunday night, which will feature a live block-metal soundtrack, for the midnight shows. Also this weekend, on Friday and Saturday, the theater features the Halloween classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” complete with live actors in front of the screen.
Tickets for the midnight shows are $4 Friday and Saturday, and $3 dollars Sunday.
Besides hosting unconventional events and showing hard-to-find-on-the-big-screen movies, the Bijou, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last week, offers an atmosphere unlike many theaters. The Spanish mission-style building was designed in 1925 by the first dean of the University’s school of architecture, according to the Bijou’s Web site.
“It’s such a non-traditional setting to watch a movie in, you can’t beat it,” said junior Ryan Harper, who lives across from the theater. “And the best part is the candy is not too expensive. I can come with a pocket of change and still buy a ticket and some candy.” Harper said he went to midnight showing, the surf documentary “Miles to Surf,” right after he moved in.
“Most theaters are so big, but this one is perfect,” said Kelsey Patterson, a senior at the University. The main cinema has a capacity of 114 and the second cinema holds 99.
The building served as a church and a mortuary before being turned into a theater for independent, art and foreign films – genres that are beginning to be shown at more big cinemas these days, according to McGahan.
“Before the big ‘indie buzz’ hit, we would get all the big indie films,” he said, “We got movies like ‘Sideways’ and ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ well before a buzz hit, but some, such as ‘March of the Penguins’ and ‘Napoleon Dynamite,’ get picked up by others. We have to compete once in a while.”
McGahan also mentioned that the theater was just given permission to show, “Eraserhead,” by filmmaker and artist David Lynch. The date for that showing is undecided.
Regular ticket prices for the Bijou are: $5 Sunday through Wednesday, $7 Thursday through Saturday and $4 for all shows before 6 p.m.
For more information got to www.bijou-cinemas.com.
