Coolidge Corner Theater keeps vintage film experience despite new renovations
BROOKLINE -- Brookline's beloved Coolidge Corner Theater recently underwent a large expansion, but will continue to preserve its retro movie-going experience by showing old movies and vintage film.
Vintage film experience
The nearly $15 million renovation began in July 2021 and re-opened to the public this March. Despite its modern changes, technical director Nick Lazzaro is not letting the Digital Age dominate viewers' cinema experience.
Lazzaro has been a projectionist and more at the Coolidge for the past 17 years. He doesn't want audiences to forget the past and says there's a purity to this bit of dated technology.
"You should never lose that edge," Lazzaro said. " That little bit of nerves before your show because it keeps you honest. It keeps you on your toes."
Threading film in a two-projector system is an art and Lazzaro is careful not to make any mistakes during the delicate process.
"It's all your senses," Lazzaro said. "It's really, like, a tactile thing. So, lot of what I'm doing isn't visual right now. It's actually by feel."
Coolidge Corner Theater renovations
Lazzaro likens the job of a projectionist to a musician.
"The cues are such that you either hit the changeover right when you see the visual cue, or you hit it just a beat after it," Lazzaro said.
The Coolidge recently finished a large expansion, adding 14,000 square feet to the near century old movie house.
Lazzaro knows that's the future but can't help waxing nostalgic about the past.
"If you've done your job with inspecting it and took your time lacing it up properly and you maintain this guy. This projector is from the early 50s, and then you just sort of react as you need to," Lazzaro said.
