Thanks to today’s technology, we can hit the road and watch (or read) what we want, when we want, and just about anywhere we go. Passing time has never been more chock full of options.
I may be late to the realization party, but up until last week, I thought of the availability of online streaming while traveling only as a source of entertainment. I have learned that it can serve as a sort of vacation enrichment program in a box.
I recently visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to roam through the rooms, the public spaces, and the grounds. Through an incredibly well done guided tour, I learned much about Wright the man and his vision. But I wanted to know more.
While wandering through the Taliesin gift shop after the tour, I happened to see a Ken Burns’ DVD on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright for sale. I was certain that a Burns’ documentary would provide the sort of expanded view I was seeking. I hoped the documentary was available online, and I’m happy to report that it was.
That night, as the sun was setting in the Midwestern sky, I sat on the back porch of a historic inn, with feet up and relaxed from a glorious day. It was time to fire up the tablet and learn more about this American icon. What a pleasure it was to be able to watch the entire documentary. While the live tour allowed time to savor the space and the beauty of the countryside, feel the history, and experience the physical and psychological reactions to Wright’s built environments, the video provided a more in-depth exploration of his early career, his philosophies, and failings–as well as successes. It was as if the live guided tour and the documentary were magical collaborative partners.
It wouldn’t have been the same if I waited until I got home to watch this documentary. I may have even forgotten about it. The sense of my tour experience would have faded. I may have even decided that I didn’t want to take the time, wasn’t as interested anymore. There would be something more pressing to do.
Watching the documentary was a delightful and satisfying way to end the day. Online streaming will now be more than an entertainment option when I’m on the road. It will be a very valuable and treasured travel companion.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Once in awhile, bigger — and longer — can be better. But is a long movie really a measure of “aiming high”?
The recently convened Toronto Film Festival will “be known for extremely long movies, as directors aim high with ambitious dramas to compete with television and other media,” so notes an article from the Sept. 14 Wall Street Journal. Five films shown in Toronto broke the two-hour barrier, including THE MASTER at 137 minutes and CLOUD ATLAS at 172 minutes. But can a long movie really ever ever compete with our ability to devour an mini series for days on end?
I recently had the distinct pleasure of enjoying a fabulous dinner at the legendary Charlie Trotter’s restaurant. The experience lasted more than three hours, about the same time it takes to savor the impeccable film LAWRENCE OF ARABIA(216 minutes). A few weeks later, I was delighted with a stand-up dining experience at the Wisconsin State Fair, featuring grilled corn on the cob, a brat, and a Spotted Cow beer. After the fair, we settled in the back yard to watch REAR WINDOW in all of its brilliant 112-minutes. Neither experience trumped the other. Both perfectly memorable.
The extended cinematic experience has its place in our limited amount of time on earth. But too much of a good thing can always end up being too much of a good thing.
Book Clubs continue to thrive. People gather face-to-face and around the world via the Web to connect over the written word.
Why don’t Movie Watching Clubs get the same love and respect as Book Clubs do?
It was a smart move when booksellers started to leverage the concept of the Book Club to promote their wares. (And Book Clubs that champion reading are good things, of course. There was a time when booksellers promoted the installation of built-in book cases in new housing construction so people would buy more books. Never mind the reading part.)
But maybe booksellers are a little hungrier. There are less than 1 trillion books sold every year. In contrast, almost 3.5 trillion videos will be viewed through on-line streaming alone this year. The movie industry doesn’t really need to create and nurture an audience. The audience is already there, willing, ready, and able, remote control in hand.
Movie Watching Clubs are simple to organize, especially with the help of online tools like Facebook, where you can easily create an event notice and a group to facilitate communication. All a movie watching club needs is a host who enjoys selecting the programming and creating the event. It doesn’t matter if the movies are shown on a plain old tv or in a high-end home theater. The key element is the shared human experience. (Cue the Home Projectionist credo: It’s More Than a Movie.)
Johnny C., fellow Home Projectionist blogger, hosted his first group watching experience on his big-screen television back in the day when a big screen tv weighed about the same as a refrigerator. The night was a hit. “Let’s face it: SHOWGIRLS is an absolutely bust if you ever watched in the theater or on tv. But when I watched with a group, it was absolutely fabulous.”
He hosted a Sunday Dark Shadows group, which was featured on NPR’s This American Life. Listen Here: Dark Shadows
“Once I bought my first LCD projector and installed a 10-foot screen, I would just say ‘I’m watching this tonight and if anyone wants to come over….’ And it turned into a situation where a lot of people would come over.”
Fast forward, and the group of John’s movie-watching friends institutionalized their group with the name (courtesy of club member Daniel Starr), the “The ‘Bleeping’ Ravenswood Manor Film Society,” also affectionately known as the TBRMFS.
The first season of the Film Society featured only made-for-tv movies from ABC’s Friday Night at the Movies because, according to John, “They were only 72 minutes a piece. We could show more than one on a week night and it wouldn’t always turn into a late, late evening. But then again, we did watch SECRET OF HARVEST HOME, clocking in at three hours long, which was crazy.”
In those early days, the TBRMFS crew convened to watch a number of eighties’ treasures like DAWN: PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE RUNAWAY followed up withTHE OTHER SIDE OF DAWN;SAVAGES; DUEL; PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS ; THE LEGEND OF LIZZIE BORDEN; TRAPPED; SATAN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS; DYING ROOM ONLY; and CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW.
In its current iteration, the TBRMFS features Random Noir Nights for smaller groups and Saturday Night Themed Double Features such as “Women in Trouble Night” featuring Doris Day in JULIEand Barbara Stanwyck in JEOPARDY.
We humans are social animals who have a need to share collective experiences. Movie Watching Clubs deserve a little more attention and a little more love.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
An estimated 10,000 people attended this summer’s first annual Cat Video Film Festival, presented by the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis. Indeed, we love to watch our kitties.
Yet, there is a certain dearth of full-length movies that actually star our furry friends. Among the short list of films with felines in leading roles are THAT DARN CAT(1965) with Hayley Mills; the absolutely wonderful and overlooked gem HARRY and TONTO (1974) starring Art Carney; THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE (1978) with Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan; and RHUBARB(1951) with Ray Milland.
Perhaps because they can be known to be a bit diva like, cats can capture starring roles when they take on animated forms in classics such as FRITZ THE CAT,(1972); THE ARISTOCATS (1970); GAY PURR-EE (1962); and GARFIELD (2004).
A few compelling creatures that have found one-hit-wonder fame in co-starring roles like Pyewacket in BELL, BOOK & CANDLE (1958); Cat from BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961); and Baby from BRINGING UP BABY (1938).
And some cats get screen credit and celebrity by not doing much of anything at all but be fascinating to look at (true to their inner cat personalities), like Mr. Bigglesworth from the AUSTIN POWERS movies.
A home theater night featuring a lineup of cat movies (tuna anyone?) would be a definite crowd pleaser. On the positive side, the limited choices make deciding what to watch an easier task.
I wonder what cats think of being marginalized by Hollywood. It seems to me there’s gold to be made if someone can come up with the right script for a feature film starring our most beloved cat characters on YouTube.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
I have never been obsessed with super spike heels that cost more than my monthly rent. Nonetheless, I have to admit that I have too many pairs of the hundred dollar or less variety stacked up in my closets. I am not immune to the power of the shoe.
In the new documentary GOD SAVE MY SHOES (2011), director Julie Benasra attempts to explore the meaning of some women’s obsession with the spike heel. The film provides an interesting and albeit sometimes wacky collection of interviews with celebrities, avid shoe collectors, sociologists, shoe designers, and cultural observers (one of whom seems to think that women never talked about sex and relationships before Sex & the City appeared on television).
Although uneven and oddly like an infomercial at times, the film does cover a wide range of subjects, providing some good fun facts to use at cocktail parties, such as shoes being a $40 billion industry and that you can take classes to learn how to walk in preposterous pumps.
Comments and clips featuring burlesque artist Dita Von Teese are designed to be titillating, and we learn of some compelling theories, one putting the forth the notion that the reason the spike is so sexy is that it forces the foot to emulate the shape it takes when a woman has an orgasm.
We hear from a plastic surgeon who specializes in fixing feet damaged by the hellish high heel. And the director of Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum takes us into her archives for a look at the shoe’s place in history. Men smartened up and stopped wearing heels after a few years of doing so in the French court, but women have carried on the tradition thanks to cultural icons like Betty Boop.Shoe designer Pierre Hardy says, “I think women find some pleasure in the pain.” Why is that men who would never wear such contraptions are the leading designers?
I know many people will shake their heads while watching this, but it is entertaining and clever if you can ignore the disdain you may feel for some of the commentators. I will keep this documentary in my file for future use. Perhaps it would be a good opening piece when showing something like KINKY BOOTS.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Just the other day on my morning walk, I noticed a restaurant two blocks away from where I live. It is the only commercial establishment along four consecutive blocks of tree-lined residential streets. I was surprised that I never noticed this restaurant, even though the place has been there an entire year. When I asked the owner why he didn’t do any promotion directly to the neighbors, he shrugged and said people would find it with their phone apps.
I continue to fret about algorithms taking away our ability to discover and create, improvise and fail, learn and innovate. I like to walk down the street and find new places to go. I don’t want my phone to have all the fun.
With all the recommendation programs out there, you can easily get lists of books, movies, and music that the algorithms will say you will like. Netflix uses something called “pragmatic chaos” to determine what we should see. And while the mathematical calculations may choose right answers, what happens to my need to hunt and gather? Isn’t that part of our human destiny?
Epagogix analyzes scripts and estimates (correctly) the potential box office draw for the movie studios.
You can submit your musical composition to MusicXray, which will run it through a set of algorithms and see if there is any hit potential with the song in your head.
One of the most interesting TED Talks features Kevin Slavin, game developer, discussing algorithms and their emergence as a powerful third force in our world. Beyond man and beyond nature, the algorithms are coming and we don’t know what to do with them. Sure, they can help us find restaurants and recommend movies. But they’re defining our culture and our lives in ways we have yet to discover.
One of the best things about my trip to Italy this summer was being introduced to the Aperol spritz. Three parts Prosecco, two parts Aperol (an orange-hued bittersweet aperitif), and a splash of club soda. It’s a perfect libation for that golden time of day when life slows down and people start to fill the piazzas.
With the long days of summer fading fast, it seemed like a good idea to enjoy a double feature of Italian romances, reflect a bit on my travels, and serve up the last of my Aperol stash. (I had discovered that I could buy it stateside at my local Binny’s.)
Our night was off to a great start with ROMAN HOLIDAY, the 1953 William Wyler classic starring Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert, and “introducing” Audrey Hepburn. (Her first film role for which she also won an Academy Award.)
This stunning black-and-white film, shot entirely on location, gives Rome itself a grayscale, velvety role. In a nutshell, this film is perfection — and Hepburn brings absolute magic to the screen. From the moment she appears, you cannot keep your eyes off of her. You witness a star being born.
The pseudo fairy tale tells the story of Hepburn’s bored but dutiful Princess Ann, who escapes her daily grind and hits the streets of Rome with reporter Gregory Peck and his sidekick photographer, played by Eddie Albert, who, by the way, steals the scenes playing this renegade character. Trouble ensues because Princess Ann doesn’t know that her newfound “friends” are just trying to get a big story about the missing princess and give their careers — and their wallets — a big boost.
But, of course, how could Mr. Peck not fall for Hepburn’s sheer loveliness, openness, vulnerability, and strength?
There’s a bit of an “ewwww” factor in the fact that Gregory Peck is too old for our sunny and beaming princess, but we can overlook that little matter. The two are delightful together, and there is impeccable honesty in their performances.
Unfortunately, this charming romantic comedy ends badly, and the princess chooses to head back to the castle. Love with a commoner is not to be. In the heart-breaking closing scene, Hepburn is all ceremony and steel as she says good bye, and she and Peck share looks that speak volumes of I-will-treasure-the memory-of-you-always sentiments. You keep thinking there will be a happy, fairy tale ending. You will be thinking wrong.
(It’s interesting to note that when ROMAN HOLIDAYwas released, Britain’s Princess Margaret was facing the same royal dilemma of having to end her love affair with a member of the common class. What a brilliant bit of serendipity to tie a movie promotion on!)
After we dried our eyes and refilled the spritz glasses, we looked forward to the second film in our lineup, ROME ADVENTURE(1962), starring Suzanne Pleshette (in her first film role too), Troy Donahue, Angie Dickinson, and Rossano Brassi. I remembered seeing this film as a young girl and I thought it was the most romantic movie ever. Sometimes memories don’t hold up.
Pleshette’s Prudence, a librarian at a girls’ school, starts out strong and compelling. After being reprimanded for lending a student a book that the administration considers obscene, Prudence resigns in that singular husky voice of hers and says, “I’m going to Italy where they know what love is about.”
So off she goes across the sea seeking an understanding of what it means to surrender to love and passion. Before she even gets to Rome, Prudence attracts two suitors, a young American and a middle-aged Italian, who present extreme options — one is too immature and inexperienced and the other is too old and uninspiring. She’s looking for someone who is “just right.” Enter the brooding Troy Donahue who looks cute in his red sweater and matching red Vespa (just like a Ken doll), but he certainly is dull and clueless. And as we say now, he is strikingly “emotionally unavailable.” Poor Prudence.
In spite of an intriguing setup — and a heavy dose of Technicolor glamor that especially suits a slutty and manipulative Angie Dickinson — writer and director Delmer Davis (of SUMMER PLACE fame) somehow loses focus. Prudence devolves from being a confident and curious young woman to being an unsure and silly girl. Her quest to understand lust and love goes flat.
It soon became apparent to us that this was going to be one of those film-watching experiences where there would be some wisecracking and collective groaning going on. About the same time we realized that the film was leaning more toward campy than classic, we also starting noticing interesting touches of the color orange appearing on the sets. An orange pillow here, an orange scarf there, an orange plate, an orange vase — the same striking color of our Aperol spritzes.
How could we not have a movie drinking game? So it was agreed: Every time there was a splash of the color orange on the screen, it was time to savor your spritz.
It was a great way to pass the time as Prudence and Don (the Donahue character) go off on a journey to tour the stunning Italian countryside. As Prudence wrestles with her carnal desires and her need to protect her virtue, the film becomes more of a travelogue. And what great fun for me to see so many of the places I had just visited — Orvieto, Lake Maggiore, the Dolomite Mountains. There is even big drama at the Piazza Erbe in Verona, which was the exact place I encountered my first Aperol spritz. What a coincidence!
One of the oddest scenes is a creepy cameo by trumpet player Al Hirt who has his date parade her stuff in a tight dress for the benefit(?) of Prudence and Don. An ensuing bar fight is priceless in its inanity.
But there is a lovely score by Max Steiner, and one of the most romantic songs in the world, Al Di La.
In both films, the young women learn about the trials and tribulations of love, and serious mistakes area made. In ROMAN HOLIDAY, Hepburn probably shouldn’t have forsaken Gregory Peck for her royal duties. Ditto in ROME ADVENTURE. By the time Pleshette’s Prudence gets the guy she thinks she wants, you know she’ll eventually realize that she’s making one of the worst choices of her life. (In a case of life imitating art, Pleshette and Donahue married after making this film, and the marriage lasted about a month.)
What we learned during this double feature is that romantic miscalculations can be made a little easier to bear with a few Aperol spritzes.
Salute!
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
English: The Alamo Drafthouse sign outside of the original location in downtown Austin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Back in the day, Tim League and his friends watched a lot of horror movies on VHS. From those humble beginnings, League took his love of film and created Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse. He is now looking to expand the organization’s presence nationwide.
[See the complete article about League’s journey in the September issue of Entrepreneur magazine, written by Chicago-based writer Jason Ankeny, executive editor of FierceMobileContent.]
Alamo has created its astounding success by delivering unique compelling movie programming along with themed entertainment. The audiences rave.
With Alamo’s Signature Series, for example, programming includes events such as Food & Film nights (with offerings such as a screening of CASABLANCA accompanied by a Moroccan feast); Weird Wednesdays for the best in classic trash; and its Cinema Club that showcases classic films along with discussions led by filmmakers, film historians, and academics.
In addition to its emphasis on unique programming, Alamo Drafthouse sponsors a Fantastic Fest film festival, distributes its own Drafthouse Films, and manages its Mondo film art boutique. To see what’s coming up, go to http://drafthouse.com/events/austin.
League has also been responsible for some behavior modification, raising a national storm last year when Drafthouse banned texting and talking.
When you’re a Home Projectionist, you love to plan programming — from making film choices to selelcting accompanying shorts, cartoons and whatever else might strike your fancy — to create signature at-home viewing events for your family and friends. Alamo Drafthouse can be a model to which Home Projectionists aspire.
The options of what we can watch continue to expand at a frenetic pace. We can thank the power of online video streaming, and the competition for content that’s heating up.
According to a Wall Street Journal article, Amazon has “more than doubled the number of television shows and movies it offers its video-streaming subscribers.” And by executing a new licensing deal with the cable channel Epix, as well as its recent content deals with Warner Bros. and MGM, Amazon is powering up its ability to compete with Netflix and Hulu LLC. According to the same WSJ article, Netflix has “roughly 50,000 shows and movies” and Hulu offers “more than 58,400 videos.”
In a recent Home Projectionist post, it was reported that, according to Broadcast Newsroom, an “estimated 3.4 billion movies will be streamed online in 2012.” The numbers are staggering.
Could it be that the days of red envelopes and red machines may come to a close sooner than was ever expected?
More options are great for people at home (Home Projectionists!) who are constantly on the prowl for compelling programming to share with their family and friends.
Lyricist extraordinaire Hal David passed away last week at age 91, leaving behind a legacy of timeless, honest, clever, and memorable lyrics that are woven into our lives.
But I always felt he wrote those songs especially for me.
As lyricist partner of composer Burt Bacharach, Mr. David penned the words to contemporary classics such as “Walk on By,” “What the World Need Now (Is Love Sweet Love), and “This Guy’s In Love With You,” to name only a few…only a few out of hundreds and hundreds! What an astounding collection of work.
Back in the day, I remember crying and singing “One Less Bell To Answer” along with the radio in my old Chevy after my high school boyfriend Bill broke my heart in 1970. And then there’s my all-time favorite Bacharach-David heartbreak song, Who Is Gonna Love Me? It’s still my go-to recording whenever I’m feeling exceptionally mournful about a failed romance.
In addition to the popular hits, there were also the gems that David and Bacharach created for film, with Best Song Oscar-nominees like “What’s New Pussycat?” for the 1965 film of the same name, and “The Look of Love” for CASINO ROYALE. And, who doesn’t know Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID?
But my all-time favorite is another Bacharach-David Oscar nominee, “Alfie,” which was written for the 1966 classic film starring Michael Caine.
To be sure, it is totally illogical and weird that a movie song named “Alfie” would endure for so long. David chose a line from the ALFIE script, “What’s it all about?” to lead the narrative, and the rest is music history.
After its tender, sweet beginning, the melody and lyrics turn frustrated: “I know there’s something much more/Something even non-believers can believe in.”
And then it gets downright hostile: “Until you find the love you missed….you’re nothing, Alfie.”
Eek. That’s an indictment.
Hope springs eternal, as they say, and the concluding lyrics send Alfie off with a wish for better days ahead: “When you walk, let your heart lead the way. And you’ll find love any day….”
I can read music a bit, but unfortunately, I have never been diligent about practicing. The only song I can play reasonably well is “Alfie.” It gives me such great pleasure that my hands still can find those notes when I periodically feel compelled to open the well-worn sheet music.
The song was a huge hit recorded by Cilla Black and of course, the Bacharach-David muse, Dionne Warwick. Joss Stone got the honor of recording it for the 2004 remake. And I had forgotten that Cher ever sang it.
.
Thank you, Mr. David, from the deepest part of my heart for writing all of those wonderful words. You always knew exactly how I felt.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Little Dutch Boy detail (Photo credit: Aria Nadii)
From now through January 7, 2013, New York’s Museum of Modern Art is presenting a retrospective of the work of identical twins, Stephen and Timothy Quay, also known as the Quay Brothers.
The prolific duo’s claim to fame is their use of stop-motion puppet animation featuring foreboding dolls and machinery in surreal episodes, influenced by the likes of Joseph Cornell, Hieronymous Bosch, and Salvador Dali. Set up as a two-story maze, the MoMA installation includes hours upon hours of the brothers’ films, videos, commercials, and documentaries, along with displays featuring their original puppets and props.
Love them or not, it’s always good for Home Projectionists to have a storehouse of clips on hand to round out an evening’s experience.
9 remote controls labeled as follows, from left to right: Philips, no label, Panasonic DVD player, homecast, dreambox, aston, SilverCast, Sony AV System, Sony TV. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When you’re in charge of what to watch in your own living room, you’re a Home Projectionist. And online streaming is emerging as the technology tool of choice, while new services are ramping up to enhance what’s already available.
According to an August 30 Broadcast Newsroom release, online move viewing is “surpassing DVDs, Blu-Ray sales, and live theater visits.” It’s a matter of cost, convenience, and choice. When you’re at home, you’re in charge. The article states it is “estimated that 3.4 billion movies will be streamed online in 2012.”
Home Projectionists note, however, that streaming choices don’t have the supplemental behind-the-scenes materials that can enhance a viewing experience.
To fill that void, one new service, for example, DigiTitles.com, offers free “making of” and related content. According to DigiTitles, its content is created and submitted by, “People involved in the production process (e.g., concept artists, storyboard artists, makeup artists, scriptwriters, stunt coordinators, photographers, etc.); producers and content owners interested in promoting their work; and anybody else with relevant information and a desire to share.”
As Home Projectionists evolve, so will the resources available to them to produce increasingly creative viewing experiences for family and friends. Everybody wins.
I remember how my father and I cried at the end of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) when the wide-eyed humans and big-headed aliens make contact for the first time. My dad and I sat in the dark theater, wiping big crocodile tears from our cheeks. We were still a little broken up as we walked out to the car after the movie. My mother rolled her eyes at us. “You two,” she said, shaking her head.
Not everything is sad to the same people.
The other day, I started thinking about how much I don’t like watching sad movies in the summertime. It just seems wrong, in a way, to be all mopey and teary-eyed when we’re in the happy days of summer. I mostly love watching sad movies on the dark and dreary late afternoons of winter.
I decided that maybe now is the time to plan ahead and start building my storehouse of sadness for winter (it’s not that far off, you know). Or was this an excuse to give in to my strange new obsession of scrolling through lists about movies? Either way, I happened upon a MovieFanFare blog list of “The 10 Saddest Movies That I’ve Watched,” written by Clara Fercovic.
I agree with a number of Ms. Fercovic’s selections: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964) and THE WEDDING NIGHT (1935) with Gary Cooper. But Garbo’s CAMILLE (1936) never quite got to me. It’s all a matter of taste, as I learned from my mother.
Some of my all-time favorite movies would also find a place on my Saddest List: CINEMA PARADISO (1988), WEST SIDE STORY (1961), WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939), THE EDDY DUCHINSTORY (1956), and BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945). Yes, and oddly enough, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.
What makes a movie sad to us? Certainly, my mother and I didn’t have the same emotional response to first contact with aliens. It turns out that scientists wondered about the emotional response to sad movies as well.
According to an article in the Smithsonian Magazine, back in 1988, Robert Levenson, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and his graduate student, James Gross, “started soliciting movie recommendations from colleagues, film critics, video store employees and movie buffs. They were trying to identify short film clips that could reliably elicit a strong emotional response in laboratory settings.”
What they thought would be a research project of a few months ended up taking them years, and what they discovered is that “two-minute, 51-second clip of Schroder weeping over his father’s dead body in The Champ…produced more sadness in laboratory subjects than the death of Bambi’s mom.”
Sadder than the death of Bambi’s mom??? I cannot agree.
I’m compiling my own selection of deliciously sad movies to watch this winter on those cold, dark days coming up ahead. I’ll be watching these weepers all alone, just me in my pajamas…and absolutely loving every minute of it. And I’m not going to be watching THE CHAMP, even if scientists say it’s the saddest one there is.
Gloria Bowman is a writer, storyteller, blogger, movie lover, freelance editor,
and author of the novel, Human Slices.
Access her blog at www.gloriabowman.com; on Twitter @GloriaBow
Cyprus Film Archive (Photo credit: Cyprus Film Archive)
When I think of state-of-the-art vaults stacked with films, I think of the studios and a variety of university and film museum archives. It turns out that there’s a government bunker in Virginia that houses a whole lot of movie history.
The U.S. created the film copyright designation 100 years ago — on August 24, 1912. Just weeks after the film copyright system was created, films were being submitted for copyright protection, and they are still coming in. The Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation is a “Noah’s Ark effort” to save America’s treasure chest of film history.
I admit it: I love to make lists. My desk and kitchen counter are strewn with lists scratched out on the backs of envelopes, in notebooks, and on little colorful sticky notes. It’s not pretty, but I can’t stop.
Some of the lists are incredibly odd and confounding, like this morning’s post of a “list” of two — yes, two — action movies. Does that even count as a list? Does it mean that the lister thinks there are only two action movies worth watching? I can only shake my head at the meaning of this.
And there are other banal lists like, “5 Films I Want to Watch.” I say, just go ahead and watch them, sir, and don’t bother me with that information.
But nestled inside these random lists you can find some lovely little gems, in categories like “Hopelessly Romantic” list and “Top Bollywood” or “Movies That Changed My Life.”
In the right-hand column of the list page, there is a helpful list of categories for the lists, which includes “Lists by IMDb Editors” (a nice resource for lists from Sight & Sounds, the awards, the critics, etc.), and films by categories, such as “Film Noir,” “Horror,” “Wesetern,” and all the rest.
And best of all, you get create and post your own lists, however wacky or insightful they may be. I must get back to them….
Not just another WordPress.com site, but an extraordinary place to spend a weekend, grill a cheese sandwich and watch a film to improve your life and stimulate a few of the grey cells.
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