Academy of Arts Theatre loses 'Amelie' to bigger house

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Staff Writer

Planned to take in "Amelie" at the Honolulu Academy of Arts tonight? Best head kokohead instead.

The sweet French comedy by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (starring ingenue du jour Audrey Tautou) was nominated for a best foreign film Oscar.

When that happened, Consolidated Theatres quickly booked the Miramax film again, for a run at Koko Marina, bumping it from the Academy Theater. The art-house flick about a quirky do-gooder had a nice long run at the Varsity and Signature's Dole Cannery in November.

"Because it got the Academy Award nomination, Consolidated has an exclusive showing of it, even though it's been on our calendar," said Academy of Arts associate director David de la Torre.

The academy did not have a confirmation for its showing, as often happens with smaller theaters in the cutthroat world of film scheduling. If a studio can get a larger showing – with the accompanying larger revenue – it will.

After tonight's Ledward Kaapana concert at 7:30, and "Demon Pond," screening at 4 p.m. Sunday, the academy theater will go dark for a time. It is being spruced up with new carpeting, chairs and screen and an upgrade of the sound system.

The lights go back up in April 13. A mini-film festival of Indian-Pakistani-Southeast Asian documentaries goes up that month.

Also, the academy has hired a curator to take over for Don Brown, who left last month. An announcement will be coming "shortly," de la Torre said.

Correction: David de la Torre is associate director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. His first name and title were missing and Consolidated Theatres was misidentified in a previous version of this story.