Sex, wine, and the cinema

Ceiling of the Paradiso cinema with its 32,000 paper flowers on the ceiling. Photos by David Lansing.

I went back in for lunch at The Vintry yesterday to see if I could get more of Mike Smith’s story (to get caught up, read http://davidlansing.com/?p=3457). More on that tomorrow. This little wine bar and café is located in the lobby of the town’s only cinema complex, which is quite convenient if you want to see a show while enjoying a nice glass of Brick Bay Cabernet Sauvignon or maybe a little Ascension Chardonnay.

Imagine: you’re sitting at a wine bar gnoshing on some chicken satay or seafood fritters, sipping on your white wine, and your date says, Oh, gosh, it’s about time for the movie to start, so you just pay your bill, grab your wine (after asking Mike to top it off), and walk across the lobby to the theater. To finish your wine there. How civilized is that?

This would never happen in the U.S. There are just too many rules and regulations to get past. And eventually, of course, even if it was possible, some idiot would sue the theater owner after they fell out of their seat because they’d been allowed to imbibe a glass of Zinfandel. Adults in the States, it seems, prefer to be treated like children and told what they can’t do because if allowed to do it, they will only get in trouble.

The movie house itself is pretty amazing. It’s actually three boutique theaters, each with its own special charm. The largest, Tivoli, has a huge amber 95-bulb chandelier suspended from a domed ceiling above the seats, which include reclining armchairs and double snuggle seats. The Roxy, the smallest of the three, has draped fabric suspended from the ceiling giving it an exotic, tent-like feel.

But the coolest has to be the 80-seat Paradiso where, yesterday afternoon, Sex and the City 2 was playing. The name of the theater—Paradiso—says it all. They wanted to make the theater feel really cheerful—a place to chase away the mid-winter blues—so they festooned the ceiling with some 32,000 colored paper flowers that were fixed by hand to a wire frame, while 100 tui birds and fantails, made from palm leaves, wing their way across the walls. Fantastic! And if you can sit in comfy, over-sized chairs with thousands of flowers over your head while enjoying a nice glass of wine, so much the better.