Offering a vast personal collection of movies from all periods and all parts of the globe, the owner of Movie Image is a lot less concerned with turning a profit than providing avid film buffs with good new material — which is why the store almost went belly-up last year. But the shop, recently transplanted to the second floor of the Wells Fargo building in downtown Berkeley, is currently switching over to a Netflix-type membership system, and converting most of its collection to DVD. Though the new store is smaller and harder to find, it’s still the best place for connoisseurs, carrying everything from early Hollywood talkies to Bollywood flicks to rare documentaries, plus selections by internationally known auteurs such as Almodóvar and Fassbinder. Most important, all the employees at Movie Image do it for the love: You can trust their recommendations, and rest assured that if they don’t stock the film you want, they’ll seek it out for you.
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Reel Video
2655 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, 510-548-1118