Eheu fugaces - or have I missed something?

[fpb]

A recent debate brought back one of the defining features of my teen years. Are there still little alternative movie clubs around, or have they all been gentrified out of existence? I first met them in Rome when I was not quite old enough to vote: small locals, often adapted from deserted shops or even lower-ground flats, most often in the neighbourhood of universities, with mimeographed programs promising golden age and art-house movies, East European animation, Japanese live-action films, Bergman and Battleship Potemkin, plus discussion clubs. They were the favoured meeting places of anyone who saw him or herself as an intellectual in fieri, and so, of course, I had plenty to do with them - witnessing the most spectacular verbal acrobatics to try and fit some sort of Marxist framework around aesthetic perceptions that obviously had nothing to do with it - sometimes even I could see that what was being said was rubbish. But it was worth it because the movies being shown really were first rate: I learned there to appreciate Ozu, Bergman, Antonioni, and, oddly enough, golden-age Hollywood. (I don't remember anyone quite acrobatic enough to manage to place Fred Astaire or John Wayne in a Gramscian framework, but I guess the general feeling was that you could not seriously deal with the art of cinema without them.) When I came to Oxford, there was a really brilliant there; when I moved to Brixton, there was another. And there is where I saw it turn into a regular movie theatre with all the trimmings. And when I last went to Oxford I could not find my old movie club,and I don't seem to be able to find them in Rome either. Have they all died out, or are there hidden somewhere behind some corner where I haven't yet been?

Comments

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

We still have a few in our area.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

There's one in Toronto, "Cineforum" run by Reg Hartt. And yes, he still rides around on his bike, putting up his B&W photocopied announcements of upcoming film programs on telephone poles around the downtown area. Battleship Potemkin is a recuring favourite of his, as are programs of old Bugs Bunny.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the true-bred specimen, and may God keep him long.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Battleship Potemkin and Bugs Bunny are definitely FTW.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it! I guess there's also the screenings that used to be at the AGO but are now at the TIFF Lighthouse. Do they feature discussion too?

[becomethesea.livejournal.com]

We have a few small movie clubs in Denver. Off the top of my head, I know of the Tivoli, Esquire, and Mayan Theaters that show local and independent movies on a regular basis. They will also do things like midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the like from time to time.

[(Anonymous)]

Home theaters are cheap, and all the old art films are a click away.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I dare say. That is one thing I had in mind. And yet you can see from the other answers that film clubs still exist. After all, it's not the same thing to watch them in a real hall - however small - and with other people with a similar mind, than to watch it by yourself or (even worse) with your hyperactive kids and your spouse whom you know would rather watch something else. There are limits to the welcoming qualities of home.