The new Film Lounge at Hartley/Vey Theatres aims to give moviegoers a new kind of movie experience by featuring couches instead of traditional stadium seating and a full working bar in the theatre.
Director of Film Programming at Hartley/Vey Theatres Jason Langlois said the Film Lounge is a kind of viewing experience that has not been seen in Baton Rouge before. While renovations happened nearly two years ago to upgrade the theaters, the Film Lounge is a new venue. The movie shown on Wednesday was the second screening the Film Lounge has had since its creation.
“After the renovations, we wanted to set up another screen in one of the lounges to give crowds a more intimate viewing experience,” Langlois said. “The main goal is to create a nice atmosphere where you and your friends can hang out and have food brought to you while watching a movie.”
Langlois said originally the Hartley/Vey Theatres simply wanted to open another screening room to show more films, but after seeing lounge-like venues across the country succeed, they wanted to create a similar theater for Baton Rouge.
“While there are other theaters in the area that you can order food and drinks at while watching a movie, they still have stadium seating and have a big capacity,” Langlois said. “We have couches which give us a much smaller, more intimate space. We probably have a capacity of somewhere around 70 people.”
The movies shown at the theater are aimed at movie buffs and people who want a change of pace from the blockbusters that are shown at other theaters.
“Each month we will be showing different movies, but mostly we will stick to classics or indie films that are not normally seen in theaters,” Langlois said. “For instance, in September we are focusing on classics that were pretty big in their time.”
Langlois said showing classic movies in September is to help promote a new art exhibit at the LSU Museum of Art, which shares the building with the theaters. The two films are about famous Parisian artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, the featured artist at the Museum of Art exhibit. In August, however, the Film Lounge will be showing an independent film that was shot on an iPhone.
“In August we will be showing ‘Tangerine,’ which is a movie that was huge hit at Sundance but is by no means mainstream,” Langlois said. “The movie has a near fully-transgendered cast so it is completely different than the film classics. We want there to be a variety of different movies shown. This movie provides a fresh take on film, which is what we are looking to show at the new space.”
Looking ahead, Langlois said the Film Lounge aims to show one or two movies a month. Because there are other events and programming that take place in the same space, the Film Lounge has to work around that.
“We would love to see it grow to four times a month or even a few other days of the week,” Langlois said.
Anyone interested in knowing more about the schedule of upcoming events can find information at www.hartleyveytheatres.org, at their social media accounts @hartleyvey on Twitter or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hartleyvey.