When Quentin Tarantino pledged to take over as head programmer at the New Beverly Cinema, the beloved Los Angeles revival theater he has owned for seven years, he said that he wanted it “to be a bastion for 35mm films.” But apparently not all that’s old is good in the director’s vision for his business. Longtime employee Julia Marchese, who directed a documentary on the theater that she planned to screen there later this year, was unceremoniously demoted from her position as a manager and forced to quit, according to an angry blog post on her personal website. Tarantino (or rather, his people) evidently messed with the wrong manager —Marchese is accusing the new management of selling out the theater’s soul, installing big brother-esque cameras and censoring employees with draconian contracts.
Marchese was hired at New Beverly in 2006 by the previous manager, and says she embraced the place as her second home. She sold candy and worked as a cashier, making less than $14,000 a year before being promised a salaried co-manager position this summer as part of Tarantino’s management shakeup. According to her post, she was given no job parameters or supervision, and the purported new “general manager” of the theater, Tarantino’s assistant Julie McLean, refused to answer her emails. The casual, familiar atmosphere with which the New Beverly greeted regulars like Kevin Smith and Patton Oswalt for years was replaced with ubiquitous security cameras. Additionally, Marchese says she was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement that barred her from discussing the New Beverly or Tarantino on any social media.
Here’s a snippet from the indictment:
The first time I walked into the New Beverly Cinema in October of 2001, I heard a little voice inside me say: “This is where you belong.”
It felt like home.
I loved that the theater was slightly shabby, that the prices were too cheap, the butter was still real, the films were still on film. I loved the kooky cast of characters working there, and the even kookier regulars who came to watch the films.
…
For my dedication to the New Beverly, I am rewarded with no job, $47 in my bank account and a finished documentary film about a place that no longer exists.
“I went through the last six weeks really thinking Quentin was going to make it better,” Marchese told Deadline. “The thing that’s most shocking to me is that he’s allowing it and I can’t even talk to him about it. To not even be allowed to state my case is unfair.”
In response to her firing, and in a gesture of solidarity with film lovers everywhere, Marchese has decided to release her documentary, “Out of Print,” which features interviews with Edgar Wright and Joe Carnahan among others, for free. Watch below.
Anyone else get major douchechills from this doc? I love the New Bev, but the snobbery these people have in the name of "we\’re not snobs, we\’re the lovable weirdos" is so transparent. And this lady does come off as a total drama queen who causes the problems she finds herself in 80% of the time.
I can\’t feel sorry for her. She comes across as a drama queen who\’s now attention-seeking. She refused to sign the NDA, she tried to find or create problems at every turn. I think I would have fired her as well, she\’s not a team player.
One cannot expect much from a person who has made himself famous by exploiting violence in film. It is disgusting to me, to say the least. How can others be so blind by Tarantino\’s sick mind? How?
She\’s an employee. I\’m all about the romantic notion of working your dream job as much as the next guy, and she really was the life-blood of that place, but bottom line is no matter how much she "loves" her job or feels at "home," she is still just an employee, and when an employee doesn\’t like how an employer/owner are running THEIR establishment… tough titties. Quit. Find another dream job. Like making documentaries for instance. This is sure getting good press for her doc.
"The thing that’s most shocking to me is that he’s allowing it and I can’t even talk to him about it." Yeah, she\’s totally happy with him.
Do you honestly think Tarantino would let HIS people run HIS theater in any way that HE didn\’t want? As if his people are going behind his back on everything without him realizing? He owns the property, kicked out the one and only manager, Michael, and programs every single movie now, and yet somehow just lets his assistant run everything without his permission? Her job is assist him, which is a full time job, not run a movie theater.
Terrific documentary. Unfortunate the filmmaker feels like she\’s lost her place of worship.
She didn\’t say she was angry at Tarantino but at her assistant who is running the theater for him, anyway don\’t alter the truth and stop doing gossip journalism (sorry if my english is not correct)
I can’t feel sorry for her. She comes across as a drama queen who’s now attention-seeking. She refused to sign the NDA, she tried to find or create problems at every turn. I think I would have fired her as well, she’s not a team player.