In case you didn’t know, this is a day of celebration. One could say one of the Feast Days of the Church of Film. It was on this day in 1902 that Thomas Lincoln Tally opened his Electric Theatre in Los Angeles.
While movies had been made and then projected onto various kinds of screens at an assortment of venues for a while by then, this was the very first theater to be built exclusively to show movies. Mr Tally charged a dime for an hour, and the opening movies included “New York in a Blizzard” and “the Capture of the Biddle Brothers.”
From the first moving pictures at the end of the nineteenth century which were simply static scenes, to the beginnings of clipping together scenes to create stories, by the dawn of the twentieth century, movies, film, cinema, has become a genuine art form, ranking with literature and live theater as an expression of the human heart and mind in all its kaleidoscopic glory.
Now neither Jan nor I are film fanatics, but we do like movies. And one of the great treats as we move toward retirement from our “day jobs” has been a commitment to take in the movies on a more regular basis. Now the truth be told any kind of regular would be an uptick for us. In the nine or so months that we have now lived in Long Beach, we’ve set the goal of seeing a movie in a real live movie theater once a week. I’d estimate we’re succeeding about sixty percent of the time, or almost three movies a month, somewhere in that ballpark.
Last week we saw City of Gold. This week we have our eye on a little Bollywood film, Kapoor & Sons, circumstances allowing.
Another thing since our move out to the Left Coast (Jan & I count this a little differently, me I calculate from when we completely moved from the East in the last weeks of June, she from when she ended her job, flew out and set up the household here a month and a little more earlier) is that on occasion I write reviews of the movies we’ve seen. Not all, so far only the ones I want to enthusiastically endorse.
In addition to the aforementioned City of Gold, I’ve been able to find nine reviews I’ve posted to this blog, including in chronological order from when we arrived Mr Holmes, Bridge of Spies, Trumbo, Spotlight, Chi-Raq, Youth, the Big Short, Carol, and just before City of Gold, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
There were others, but for various reasons from they stunk to I just couldn’t find the handle that I chose not to review. The only one I kind of wish I had, although I also came away with strong mixed feelings was Straight Outta Compton. I expect I’ll feel my way into more complicated reviews for films such as that as time goes on.
Or, not.
We shall see.
But, really, just a moment to pause and appreciate.
And to think of the movies.
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