Movie lovers. Cinephiles. Film buffs. Whatever we may be called, we all have one thing in common, the love of darkness and sticky floors! No, wait, that’s not it. I meant the love of those magical projections of light that have the power not only to entertain but to reach into our deepest depths, take what they find there and tear it asunder or, perhaps, gently ease it into the light or, on occasion, send it soaring to the heavens. We, quite simply, love movies.
Now, everyone has favorites. Mine, quite obviously, is Smurfs 2: Revenge of Smurfette. (I kid.) I never really could pick just one so, instead, I’m going to talk about another, perhaps even greater love…the making of movies.
An excellent and almost all-encompassing place to start is The Story of Film: An Odyssey. This fifteen-hour (yes, you read that correctly…this rec is coming from someone who’s watched multiple Ken Burns documentaries as well as the seventeen-hour History of Britain!) chronological tribute to one man’s love of film takes you from the very beginning of film to the digitally recorded and increasingly unreal worlds of modern cinema. I was absolutely enthralled by this documentary with a slight lull in my enthusiasm as we entered the 1970s and slogged through to the 1990s. After that, things again brightened as we considered the future of cinema all the way to the 2040s. So, yes, an odyssey it is but one well worth undertaking.
After you’ve finished your master class in film history, you’re ready for the nitty-gritty of building dreams with light. Tales from the Script gives you the writer’s often missing perspective on the world of film. Directors: Life Behind the Camera gives voice to a multitude of directors on their individual visions and how they bring them to life. Visions of Light explores the art of cinematography, where the flesh and light become one. The Cutting Edge(alas, not the ice skating movie…and, unfortunately, available only through inter-library loan) celebrates the often misunderstood importance of editing as the ultimate device to breathe life into the stories we all love to lose ourselves in. The last stop on our journey is Side by Side (available at Acorn) where the future of film in a digital age is dissected and discussed and where we are given hope that our beloved medium will not soon perish from the world.