I never thought I'd find inspiration by looking to the past. We're always moving forward, aren't we? Ideas build upon ideas, technologies upon technologies, until we get the wonderful mind-bending complexities of contemporary cinema. Audiences, I have always felt, are so jaded that a twist is usually necessary to wow them. Sometimes, it feels like modern philosophy is that visual bombardment will do the trick.
And then I saw Girl Shy with a live orchestra and more importantly (if that is possible), an audience that laughed and jumped more than I did. For the irrepressible grin as I walked away from the Egyptian Theater alone, I do not regret sitting through unreasonably heavy traffic for two hours. I admit that I had recently started considering other careers. Filmmaking is so uncertain, and what is life and who am I and why are we here and all that. This weekend I found the cure. I just have to think about the joy in that theater and ta da!
So yes, I spent Sunday on Hollywood Blvd, which I like in that kitschy neon tourist cesspool sort of way, watching new (to me) oldies at the TCM Classic Film Festival. Next year I hope to attend the whole thing. I found all sorts of people there - a guy who spoke of LA as a casual Manhattan (really?) and was really excited about being in Hollywood, a woman who clung vehemently to "they don't make 'em like that anymore," and another who declared, "The Titanic sank tonight. On this very night!"
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