Eyes wide open: Rediscover classic film
Wednesday April 22, 2015 | By:Tony Baksa |
For movie-lovers, this is the golden age. Not necessarily because movies are better but that they are so abundant. And with abundance come choices and so many wonderful ways to access this great art form.
I love movies – new, old, short, long, intimate, epic, black and white, color, Cinemascope, 3D – so many bad flicks but so many good ones, too.
You can go the conventional route and catch the latest releases at your local Cineplex. You can rent or buy the movie of your choice on DVD. Television and the Internet offer plenty of options from On Demand, premium channels and streaming.
And then there’s another option – my favorite – Turner Classic Movies. Bless TCM. Bless Robert Osborne – TCM host, guide and film expert. While I’m at it – Bless Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers.
I pick movies the way I pick books. One of my favorite “libraries” is TCM. I adore this television network. It isn’t nostalgia that beckons me to this channel. It’s an aesthetic. TCM, like a library, has the good the bad and the interesting.
Today on TCM I watched a series of short Lumiere films – movies from the 1800’s! Two of them were in color. What an experience. Viewing movies from two centuries ago was like a visitation from Marley’s ghost – chilling, thrilling and a little scary but also a kind of spiritual experience.
I recently watched “Giant’ with Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson. It was fabulous. I was astounded to realize what a great actress Taylor was, in her prime. I was surprised at how good Hudson was and how bad the forever young Dean could be. “Giant’s” director George Stevens was a revelation.
Another surprise was the phenomenal performance by a young and very beautiful Natalie Wood in “Splendor in the Grass.” Warren Beatty made his movie debut in “Splendor” and was pretty stunning – all the earmarks of a screen star. Directed by Elia Kazan, Wood’s heartbreaking performance was never equaled by her.
TCM is a treasure trove of great 20th Century “literature.” Yes, TCM also shows bombs but viewed as history, these bombs blow away many of today’s hits – you know – like the repulsive “Hangover” movies, the stupid Jennifer Aniston romcoms, the grating Adam Sandler indulgences, the smarmy Paul Rudd buddy flicks, the recent spate of senior citizen romantic comedies starring the likes of Diane Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep and Robert Dinero.
I am not saying old movies were better than today’s efforts. I am saying that today’s garbage is smellier. In an attempt to be real, many movies have given up wit, true humor and poetic vision. That said, today we have Ang Lee, Spielberg, Scorsese, Danny Boyle et al making very good movies. There is much to enjoy and savor today, but ah - yesterday’s Bette Davis, Kazan, Garland, Cagney, Charles Laughton, Montgomery Clift, Geraldine Page, Ava Gardner, Kim Novak, William Inge, Hepburn, David Lean, Brando, Coppola, Lumet, MGM musicals and that marvelous roaring lion and so on.
But I don’t have to dwell in a nostalgic mist. I just turn on TCM and catch a dream – eyes wide open.
http://www.thesunnews.net/scene/227-Eyes_wide_open_Rediscover_classic_film.html
I love movies – new, old, short, long, intimate, epic, black and white, color, Cinemascope, 3D – so many bad flicks but so many good ones, too.
You can go the conventional route and catch the latest releases at your local Cineplex. You can rent or buy the movie of your choice on DVD. Television and the Internet offer plenty of options from On Demand, premium channels and streaming.
And then there’s another option – my favorite – Turner Classic Movies. Bless TCM. Bless Robert Osborne – TCM host, guide and film expert. While I’m at it – Bless Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers.
I pick movies the way I pick books. One of my favorite “libraries” is TCM. I adore this television network. It isn’t nostalgia that beckons me to this channel. It’s an aesthetic. TCM, like a library, has the good the bad and the interesting.
Today on TCM I watched a series of short Lumiere films – movies from the 1800’s! Two of them were in color. What an experience. Viewing movies from two centuries ago was like a visitation from Marley’s ghost – chilling, thrilling and a little scary but also a kind of spiritual experience.
I recently watched “Giant’ with Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson. It was fabulous. I was astounded to realize what a great actress Taylor was, in her prime. I was surprised at how good Hudson was and how bad the forever young Dean could be. “Giant’s” director George Stevens was a revelation.
Another surprise was the phenomenal performance by a young and very beautiful Natalie Wood in “Splendor in the Grass.” Warren Beatty made his movie debut in “Splendor” and was pretty stunning – all the earmarks of a screen star. Directed by Elia Kazan, Wood’s heartbreaking performance was never equaled by her.
TCM is a treasure trove of great 20th Century “literature.” Yes, TCM also shows bombs but viewed as history, these bombs blow away many of today’s hits – you know – like the repulsive “Hangover” movies, the stupid Jennifer Aniston romcoms, the grating Adam Sandler indulgences, the smarmy Paul Rudd buddy flicks, the recent spate of senior citizen romantic comedies starring the likes of Diane Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep and Robert Dinero.
I am not saying old movies were better than today’s efforts. I am saying that today’s garbage is smellier. In an attempt to be real, many movies have given up wit, true humor and poetic vision. That said, today we have Ang Lee, Spielberg, Scorsese, Danny Boyle et al making very good movies. There is much to enjoy and savor today, but ah - yesterday’s Bette Davis, Kazan, Garland, Cagney, Charles Laughton, Montgomery Clift, Geraldine Page, Ava Gardner, Kim Novak, William Inge, Hepburn, David Lean, Brando, Coppola, Lumet, MGM musicals and that marvelous roaring lion and so on.
But I don’t have to dwell in a nostalgic mist. I just turn on TCM and catch a dream – eyes wide open.
http://www.thesunnews.net/scene/227-Eyes_wide_open_Rediscover_classic_film.html
