Sound Cinema: The Grand Illusion

It is tough when a beloved institution closes its doors, but it’s wonderful when it can be given an excellent send off. The Grand Illusion Cinema has been at 1403 NE 50th Street in the U District for over 50 years, the last 20 of which have been as a completely volunteer-run non-profit. The theater will be closing soon and having its final screenings this month.

Soon-to-be-former location of The Grand Illusion Cinema

The Evergreen Echo

During the past 50 years, The Grand Illusion Cinema has hosted repertory screenings, international features, and art house and indie first-run features. Films are projected in several formats including 35 millimeter and 16 millimeter. It is a single-screen theater, so often there’s one showing per day of a rotating set of features. The eclectic mix ensures there is something for everybody.

The lobby is covered with posters large and small. Many of them are for past or future screenings and series. The snack bar and box office occupy the same space, so as you pay for your tickets, you can pick up some candy and popcorn. There is also a wide selection of bottled sodas.

Inside the screening room is a classic theater set up. The walls are covered in red velvet curtains to dampen the outside noise. The occasional obnoxious revving engine or emergency siren will cut through the film's soundtrack as the screening room’s west wall is on the corner of NE 50th and University Way. Very occasionally the restaurant next door will get rowdy enough to penetrate the magic of the film on screen. 

The pre-show lighting is provided by elegant wall sconces that keep the space cozy yet navigable. The seats are a kind of classic movie theater seat with a pleasant cushion that is just right. The seats are spaced perfectly enough for the tall among us to sit comfortably even if a person sits in the seat in front of you.

The downsides of the small space and a well-attended showing are that it can feel crowded and stuffy at times. Those that are broad shouldered might find an uncomfortable intimacy with a seatmate. In the winter it’s not that bad; just be sure to shed layers before getting comfortable. As there are no cup holders, be prepared to have your bottled drink in your lap or, as not to interrupt the reverie on screen, on the floor where it cannot be inadvertently kicked.

Entrance to The Grand Illusion Cinema / The Evergreen Echo

At a recent screening of Police Story (1985) to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary, The Grand Illusion was packed. With repertory screenings like this one it is best to have the largest audience possible. To hear others' reactions to the mayhem and awe-inspiring stunts is part of the fun! This is especially true when the audience was just out of the age bracket for the film's first release. Many of us will see films we have known our whole lives in an entirely new light this way.

Even though it’s cheaper and easier to pop on some streaming service to see films like Police Story, this experience offers a different way to see a film. Often it can be a way to remind us that we are not alone. When we laugh, cry, and gasp in unison with a few dozen strangers in the dark, we suddenly create a community. There could be someone seeing the film for the first time, or who is seeing the film for the umpteenth time, but never in this way. We can love it, we can hate it, but we get to share it with each other and there is beauty in that.

In the final weeks of January 2025, The Grand Illusion will be wrapping up several of its long running programs and the remaining showings of its final first-run features. The final instances of Saturday Secret Matinees, where a classic serial episode is paired with a feature, will occur with the themes Westerns and Sci-fi Invasions on January 18 and 25 respectively. VHSEX, an adults only clip package of sexploitation films, will be finishing up on January 16. Another VHS series, VHS Uber Alles, will have its final show on January 25. If you want to catch the final showings of some first-run films, several shows have been added for the 2024 documentary From Ground Zero as well as Leos Carax's new short It's Not Me. There will also be a final (eleventh!) encore screening of new slapstick masterpiece Hundreds of Beavers on January 27.

Poster for Grand Illusion

Rialto Pictures

The final repertory showings will all be a part of the Farewell to 1403 series. Several of those showings will also serve as fundraisers for the new space for a few dollars more per ticket. There are some spectacular films in this series. The Grand Illusion, from which the theater takes its name, is a beautiful film from 1937 about World War I French POWs who must put their class differences aside in order to escape their captors. Daisies, a Czech film from 1966, is a strange, glorious, and absurdist film about two women attempting to inject a little anarchy into their patriarchal society. The final show will be the most bittersweet with Cinema Paradiso, a 1989 Italian film about a young boy who comes of age near a cinema in war-torn Italy, the ending of which will fill your heart with unimaginable joy.

It’s a great space to visit and will be sorely missed where it is. In between the current space and the next space, The Grand Illusion will be hosting screenings at other venues, which they will post on their website and announce on their email list. 

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Sound Cinema is a monthly column dedicated to reviewing neighborhood film exhibition spaces around the Puget Sound.