In which I discover that I am old
When was the last time you were excited about seeing a movie? I gaze blankly across the valley of ashes that is the summer blockbuster season, and find that not a single flick could induce me to trade a couple of hours of sleep for its popcorn-and-pounding-soundtrack pleasures.
Do you remember when you first saw Star Wars in a theater? Or Raiders of the Lost Ark? The last time I was really excited about seeing a movie was in December of 2000, when Sadeeq and I -- accompanied by various Rumpus siblings and friends -- went out to see The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring. I was so excited about that one, in fact, that I had the hiccups and an itchy little hive on the back of my left hand.
Now I'd rather stay home and watch His Girl Friday on DVD. Sure, I'd leave the house to catch His Girl Friday or Casablanca on the big screen, but good revival houses are few and far between. I used to live a couple of miles from The New Beverly Cinema, a great revival house in Los Angeles. I'd love to drive out there tonight and see Days of Heaven -- and I'd go back again for their Barton Fink/Miller's Crossing and Streetcar Named Desire/On the Waterfront double features. Maybe I'm just in one of those "everything in the culture is worse today than it was when I was younger" moods, but it strikes me that, twenty years from now, The New Beverly is still going to be showing On the Waterfront, Days of Heaven, Casablanca . . . and there's little chance that Mission Impossible 3 will have been added to their rotation.
And so I stay home. And grumble. And reminisce about how I once walked five miles to see a double feature of The Innocents and Don't Look Now at Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Bing Theater. Five miles uphill. Both ways.
Kids these days . . . they have it so much better. And so much worse.
Do you remember when you first saw Star Wars in a theater? Or Raiders of the Lost Ark? The last time I was really excited about seeing a movie was in December of 2000, when Sadeeq and I -- accompanied by various Rumpus siblings and friends -- went out to see The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring. I was so excited about that one, in fact, that I had the hiccups and an itchy little hive on the back of my left hand.
Now I'd rather stay home and watch His Girl Friday on DVD. Sure, I'd leave the house to catch His Girl Friday or Casablanca on the big screen, but good revival houses are few and far between. I used to live a couple of miles from The New Beverly Cinema, a great revival house in Los Angeles. I'd love to drive out there tonight and see Days of Heaven -- and I'd go back again for their Barton Fink/Miller's Crossing and Streetcar Named Desire/On the Waterfront double features. Maybe I'm just in one of those "everything in the culture is worse today than it was when I was younger" moods, but it strikes me that, twenty years from now, The New Beverly is still going to be showing On the Waterfront, Days of Heaven, Casablanca . . . and there's little chance that Mission Impossible 3 will have been added to their rotation.
And so I stay home. And grumble. And reminisce about how I once walked five miles to see a double feature of The Innocents and Don't Look Now at Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Bing Theater. Five miles uphill. Both ways.
Kids these days . . . they have it so much better. And so much worse.
posted by Kate Marie | 1:23 AM | Permalink
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1 comments
1 Comments:
Yeah, I know, and you don't take advantage of it, do you?
You should go see Days of Heaven tonight -- one of the most beautiful color films ever made.
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