--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Unlike you I grew up in a small town in the country and the nearest > theaters were 20 miles away. Movies were a treat and not something > to send the kids to do while shopping. Besides I got more hooked > on the Friday night horror movies on TV most of which were old > public domain films (so the station didn't have to pay much for > the rental). The town where the theaters were had a liberal arts > college where the rich sent a lot of their kids and so the theaters > would often show some of the art films of the day. Those were my > mainstay in high school and continued when I attended went to > college in a large city that also had good supply of art house > theaters.
I grew up in movie theaters. My mother told me that they could take me with them to the movies even when I was a baby. I never cried; I would just shut up and watch the screen. I don't remember that, naturally, but I remember spending almost every weekend at the double features, and then when we started living on Air Force bases, the movies changed every night and cost 25 cents. I saw a lot of movies. In college I discovered foreign and art films, and from that point on I've been a goner. I think film has been the most important medium of art on the planet for most people of our age. For the newer generations, TV has been more important. But there is a big differ- ence between film and TV -- hot vs. cool. You'd have to have read McLuhan to get the difference, but I think it's a real one. > Like many here I don't particularly like to mingle with the > hoards at a theater. In the US too many audiences are still > rude, put their stinky tennies up the chair next to you, yap > on their cell phone or to their girl friend which is enough > to keep many of us away. I live in France. France has a love affair with the movies that just won't quit, even in the day of DVDs and home cinema. People go to the movies to watch the movie; they don't talk. It's the hot vs. cool thing. Hot media suck you into them and demand more of your focus. Cool media don't, at least not as much. TV is cool, film is hot. You can talk with a TV on in the background, but it's inherently more difficult to talk with a movie on in the background. A lot of the talkers in the theaters these days are members of the TV generation. Here's a cute article you might like. It happened when I was still living in Paris. It's about underground cinema, literally: :-) http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,4029,1299449,00.html > BTW, the winner of the After Dark Horror Fest "The Abandoned" > is being released in the US tomorrow. There were 8 winners > in the fest and the 1st prize winner got a run in the theaters > so is being released several months after the other 7 were > released. I'm looking forward to seeing it. I'm looking forward to being in Sitges in October for its film festival. It focuses on fantasy, science fiction and horror films, which is just right up my alley. Besides, I still own a tux from my Rama days, so I can probably sneak into the after-ceremony parties and hob-nob with the film folk. :-)
