Focus : The (Art) House of Cinemax

For cineastes, revival theaters were a great place to hang out with fellow film buffs and rewatch favorite foreign, independent or documentary movies. No one seemed to mind if the theaters were funky or the popcorn stale.

With the enormous growth of the videocassette market in the ‘80s, however, revival houses have all but vanished. And, while video stores carry a range of rental films, most relegate art-house fare to a few back shelves and don’t carry enough titles to satisfy serious film fans.

But cable networks TNT, Bravo and Cinemax have hoped to placate--and lure--the film buff.

Three years ago, TNT launched an International Film Festival airing new, pristine prints of such classics as Jean Cocteau’s “Orpheus” and Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood” each week.But the festival didn’t perform well in the ratings and it was history within six months.

Bravo has dusted off such venerable fare as Fellini’s “Variety Lights,” Marcel Carne’s “Le Jour Se Leve” and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.” Its biggest coup, in 1991, was the American TV premiere of Bernardo Bertolucci’s restored “1900.” However, because Bravo, like TNT, is a basic-cable network, films must be edited for nudity, language and violence; Bravo now runs a disclaimer before every edited film.

Now, Cinemax’s “Friday Vanguard” showcase has become the discerning movie fan’s best friend. In December, 1991, “Vanguard” offered the American TV premiere of Marcel Carne’s legendary French epic “Children of Paradise.” Last year, it presented 36 films under the “Vanguard” banner, including Madonna’s “Truth or Dare” documentary, Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Barton Fink” and Agnieszka Holland’s award-winning “Europa, Europa.”

Over the next two months, “Vanguard” will present such eclectic fare as the popular documentary “Paris Is Burning,” the Cannes award-winning “‘The Double Life of Veronique,” Pedro Almodovar’s “High Heels,” the Australian thriller “Proof” and Peter Greenaway’s controversial “Prospero’s Books,” with John Gielgud baring all for the first time in his long career.

Cinemax created “Vanguard” to satisfy “a loyal, albeit small, segment of our subscriber base,” says Elisabeth Glass, director of film acquisitions. Cinemax currently has 6.8 million subscribers.

“For the ‘Vanguard’ films, we do get a low tune-in,” Glass acknowledges. “The up side comes from satisfying those subscribers who do tune in. It may be under 250,000 who do tune in to one of these films, but they are very loyal. They send in more mail than anybody.”

“These are wonderful films that we want to bring to subscribers because they really don’t get a chance to see them anywhere else,” says Jill Champtaloup, director of programming. Every year, Glass attends film festivals in North America, including Telluride, Sundance and Toronto, and independent films markets to “try to find a new vision of what American independents are doing, as well as picking up not only the top box-office foreign films, but films that might have gotten lost in the shuffle because maybe they were from a small distributor and didn’t get as much publicity.”

Most of the foreign films “Vanguard” has aired, including the Oscar-winning “Cinema Paradiso” and “Europa, Europa,” have been box-office hits in America. “But we are taking more chances,” Glass says. “Most of the documentaries we have played in ‘Vanguard,’ even if they didn’t get released theatrically, they did come out of a festival for the most part.”

While at the festivals, Glass likes to meet with filmmakers to discuss Cinemax programming, “and how we hope to show their films in our ‘Vanguard’ slot,” she says. “I think we have been very supportive and continued to be supportive of the independent filmmaker.”

Though Cinemax does air subtitled foreign films, some purists may argue with the network’s decision to also show dubbed versions. “We show both,” Champtaloup explains, “because, believe it or not, there are a lot of fans out there who prefer dubbed.”

Cinemax plans to air 48 “Vanguard” titles this year--12 more than last year. “We are trying to re-establish a rep house because across America so many of the forums where people used to go are gone,” Glass says. “We hope Cinemax can fill the void.”

“Vanguard” airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on Cinemax; this week, “ Vanguard “ airs “The Double Life of Veronique.”