The Demise of the Movie Theatre

"Of Buggy Whips and Celluloid

Technology is depriving us of what makes movies special: each other

by James Burrus

I have seen the end of film, and while it may not be pretty, it is certainly sharp. Movies aren’t about to disappear. As long as there is an auteur with a digital recording device and iMovie on his or her Mac Book Pro, there will be movies.

But movies will not be immune from the carnage of digital isolationism and the loss of what amounts to the soul of cinema: its social element.

Oddly, this will not be due to a lack of quality. Quite the contrary; the end of movies will be projected in high-def digital glory on walls and plasma screens and laptops and cell phones across the nation.

Because as the technology gets better and cheaper, more and more people are bringing it home—and therein lies the danger. If you think NetFlix is giving theaters a financial Charlie horse, Blu-ray discs, players and projectors are set to turn the once-communal experience of watching a movie into a relic of the past, just as pulling into the local drive-in for a burger has become an icon of the Good Ol’ Days.

I know this is true because my film aficionado friend, Pablo “Keelsetter,” told me so. In fact, there’s a lot more to the loss of the group experience of watching a film. As he wrote in his film blog—found at moviemorlocks.com:

“…there is a collection of pheromones and audible and physical communications emitted by a large crowd of people reacting to a film that can definitely accentuate the experience. Also, let’s face it: true immersion into a film is more likely in a theater where you cannot pause the action and where your silence and attention are part of the understood bond of that setting.”

In addition is the demise of viewing a story told via a classic medium: film.
Just as a gearhead can tell by the sound of an idling motor that he’s in the presence of a 1968 Cobra Jet Mustang, a film connoisseur appreciates knowing details like aspect ratios and print quality. Because they matter in the same way aspiration and compression matter in an engine or brush strokes matter in a Van Gogh painting..." Continued here

Valeria Camporesi

Monday., March 16 from 6 PM to 7 PM in ATLAS 102.

"Valeria Camporesi, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
'A country as a cinematographic set. Exoticism, landscapes and architecture in the history of cinema in Spain'
(paper proposal for a seminar on Spanish cinema to be held at the University of Colorado at Boulder on March 19-20, 2009).

'Since the mid-1990s, the very idea of the “Spanishness” of films realized in Spain has been the object of scientific debate (a sketchy summary of it can be found in Triana-Toribio; and Zunzunegui; for an influential general appraisal in Spanish on national cinemas, see Sorlin). As a way to deal with this issue from an innovative perspective, my talk shall explore a small group of films which explicitly use recognizable natural settings (landscapes, monuments, historic buildings) as a metaphore of some kind of a collective identity, either rejected or assumed. The sketchy reconstruction will go back to the early 1920s, when French directors shooting in Spain in natural settings inaugurated a new way to look at oustanding sceneries and “real” architecture.' -Valeria Camporesi

Born in Bologna, Italy, Valeria Camporesi is a Lecturer of Film and Audiovisual Media History in the Art History and Theory Department of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is also coordinator of the PhD Program in Film History of the same University. Author of a book on British reactions to Americanization in broadcasting history in the inter-war years (Mass Culture and National Traditions. The BBC and American Broadcasting, 1922-1954, European Press Academic Publishing, 2001), since 1989 she lives and works in Madrid. Her current research interests range from extensive and intensive analyses of representations of Spanish cultural identity in film history (an overall approach can be found in her book Para Grandes y Chicos. Un Cine para Los Españoles, 1940-1990, Turfán, 1994); transnational aspects of Spanish cinema; historical approaches to intertextuality in European film history; analysis of changing patterns of verisimilitude in production and reception of audiovisual media; contemporary cinema and film theory; film, video and television in European cinema since the 1960s.


BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY
AA.VV., La nueva memoria. Historia(s) del cine español, A Coruña, Vía Láctea Editorial, 2005.
V. Camporesi, Para grandes y chicos. Un cine para los españoles, 1939-1990, Madrid, Turfán, 1994.
P. Sorlin, “¿Existen los cines nacionales?”, Secuencias, 7 (1997), pp. 33-40.
N. Triana-Toribio, Spanish National Cinema, London, Routledge, 2003.
S. Zunzunegui, Historias de España. De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de cine español, Valencia, Filmoteca, 2002.

BASIC FILMOGRAPHY
El Dorado (L’Herbier, 1921)
La galería de los monstruos (J. Catelain, 1924)
La aldea maldita (F. Rey, 1929)*
Domingo de carnaval (E. Neville, 1948)*
Surcos (J.A. Nieves Conde, 1951)*
Los golfos (C. Saura, 1959)*
El extraño viaje (F. Fernán Gómez, 1964)*
El espíritu de la colmena (V. Erice, 1973)*
Vacas (J. Medem, 1991)*
Todo sobre mi madre (P. Almodóvar, 1999)*"

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH

**REMINDER**

The film HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH will be playing Monday, March 16th at 7 PM only. The showing will take place in the Muenzinger Auditorium and will feaature the director John Cameron Mitchell in person. Plus -its all FREE!!

"This film named after a body part truncated in a botched sex-change operation could be disturbing or tragic, but this glam-rock musical sparkles with life-affirming energy. John Cameron Mitchell not only wrote and directed the film but also plays Hansel, a Berlin teen who falls for an army sergeant but to get a marriage license submits to an inept sex-change operation that leaves him with the inch described in the film's title and the abandonment of his GI husband. Hansel becomes Hedwig, falls unrequitedly in love with rock star Tommy Gnosis, and follows Gnosis' tour as he steals her songs and sells out stadiums. In her performances for tips by the salad bar at Bilgewater's, Hedwig works through her identity crisis and pursues her moving quest for affirmation. With lyrics and music by Steven Trask." -IFS website

The showing is sponsored by the Conference on World Affairs.

Brakhage Symposium

This Saturday and Sunday will be the fifth annual Brakhage Symposium. It is held from 10 AM to 9 PM both March 14th and 15th in the ATLAS building on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. 

"Quickly becoming a tradition in the world of avant-garde filmmaking and artistry, the Stan Brakhage Symposium will again be hosted this year by the Colorado University's Film Studies Department. This symposium will be unlike any before it. Spanning over two days, two programmers from cities on either side of the country will meet at America's core to recognize, honor, and carry on the legacy of the late Stan Brakhage, a man who once all but defined the American Avant-Garde. Cementing together the extensive video and film events being offered will be the symposium's core of academia. Each day will feature either presentations or panels that will contextualize the programs in the light of the contemporary avant-garde world. What Brakhage began, the symposium seeks to continue, by each year bringing memebers of the experimental film and video community together, not only to celebrate art, but to share ideas and promote the evolution of the moving image." -Brakhage Symposium website

Support is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences & the William H. Donner Foundation. For more information, please check out the Brakhage Symposium website.

Stephen King on DAWN OF THE DEAD

Tomorrow night, IFS is showing DAWN OF THE DEAD at 7 PM and 9:15 PM. Come see this movie that even Stephen King liked.

"I hope Fox and Warner Bros. will settle their nasty cat-fight over Zack Snyder's WATCHMEN movie. I think Snyder's tremendously talented (I just watched his DAWN OF THE DEAD remake to see if it holds up -it does), and WATCHMEN is one graphic novel that cries out for a film adaptation. That one has been made and I might not be allowed to see it seems absurdly unfair." 

-Stephen King, "Wishing and Hoping", Entertainment Weekly, 1/23/09

For the whole article, click here.

Film Reports from February 18-22

Yes, we do still show most of our movies on 35mm film. And we now post our projectionist's take on the film. When you walk in the door you can see how the nights print will be right at the box office. Here are the Projectionist's (Tony's) Opinions for last week:

CHILDREN OF MEN

Condition: Perfect. Print is clean and free of scratches. Print is uncut. Appears to have been run very few times. Possibly a studio archival print.

Comes From: Blowning Cinema in Notre Dame, IN

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID

Condition: Excellent. Clean and splice free. There may be some very minor base scratches on the right side of reel 1. 

Comes From: Criterion Pictures in Morton Grove, IL

FEARS OF THE DARK

Condition: Good. Clean and  splice free. Some base scratches in the middle of the picture throughout the movie, but not too bad. 

Comes From: TCD Wilmington Distribution Center in Wilmington, OH

JCVD

Condition: Fair-good. Some dirt. Some minor base scratches. 3 splices throughout reel 2. Good both cues. Replaced all head and tail splices. 

Comes From: Lyric Cinema Cafe in Fort Collins, CO

Look for this week's projection's review at the box office before the film starts.

Facebook

Ok, we know everyone has/wants one, whether they admit it or not. One cool way to get into the Facebook world and get more information on all of the great films that IFS are playing is by becoming a fan of the International Film Series. Just follow the link here, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boulder-CO/International-Film-Series/38116812724?ref=ts%20 or click on the Facebook link on the side panel. Even if you're curious, just check it out. Facebook is a great and easy way to discuss all of the films we show in Meunzinger, but you can also discuss anything you want pertaining to the film realm. So joining is just a click away. Come on...we know you want to.