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NEWS OF ATHENS’ CINEMA SCENE
Too Real?: Unavoidable renovations to the
Film Notebook residence of late—due to immi
nent spatial demands—have necessitated the
purchase of a very fancy new television. Its
screen is bigger than any TV I've ever had.
though not by too much (and it fits in a much
smaller space, because it's flat), and it's got
much higher resolution. Things really look
different on it—even from the way they dies
on my old HDTV, which wasn't all that old.
You can see the ever-so-slight mushiness of
images shot on HD v’deo. like the nonetheless
beautiful and compelling ones in Last Train
Home. Lixin Fan's 2009 documentary about
the annual migration of millions of Chinese
migrant workers who return home for the
New Year, which I started watching the other
night but haven't finished. And in films shot
in 35mm and viewed on Blu-Ray, like Mike
Leigh's wonderful Another Year, which I did.
at last, watch in Us entirety last week, the
definition is so clear it's almost distracting:
it's like the images are hyper-real, their crys
talline sharpness combining with the inherent
distortions and limitations of motion pictures
to produce an effect I can best describe as
"unnaturally realistic."
It's even more pronounced in a film like
Horry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 1
(yes, I watched that, too), where the analog-
based images—all meticulously designed
and art-directed before any camera ever saw
them—have been so thoroughly processed
and refined with digital effects that they've
become largely artificial, then mastered for
the slickest and hardest look possible. It's
very strange—almost unwatchable, oddly—
when all those layers of stylization are viewed
through a medium so exact in its representa
tions that the so-familiar characters in the
film's "magical" world start to look like actual
teenagers in American Apparel walking
around on movie sets.
I'll get used to it, of course, and I don't
really want to sound like I'm complaining:
technical advances are good, right? But this
sudden jolt to my senses has me thinking
about what, exactly, my expectations are
with regard to the most basic aesthetic ele
ments of a film. Do I demand a fundamental
unreality? Or a specific version of unreality
("reality"?) to which I've grown accustomed?
People have been accustomed to all sorts of
things in the brief but phenomenally eventful
history of motion pictures: analog projection,
effects and cameras; theatrical presentation;
lack of color; lack of speech. All those norms
have been corrupted, compromised or oblit
erated and each time, purists howled, the
masses wowed or shrugged, and pretty soon
the innovation became the standard. I'm not
gome all Rudolf Arnheim on my sweet 1080p
digital TV—far from it—and this isn't exactly
the dawn of the talk
ies. I just don't think
I've ever had such
a clear view of the
ongoing revolution,
however minor the
chapter.
■< Your Ma, She's Good
Lookin': The weather's
gotten pretty raunchy,
and Cine's Summer
Classic Movie Series
is cranking up to
give us all an extra
two-hour b'eak from
tne swelter during
each of the next
six weeks. First up
is Lasse Halstrom's
romantic 2000 hit
Chocolat. starring
Juliette Binoche and
Johnny Depp, opening
Friday. July 8 with a
personal introduction
by man-about-town
Tony Eubanks. Tony
was a key organizer of Cine's first classics
series last summer, and he's leadoff off this *
year with a real ringer. The following week's
<• try s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston,
arej introduced July 15 by Drive-By Trucker
ind serious film afficionado Patterson Hood.
Patterson's been itching to bring John
Huston's dark but ma r terfully entertaining
fable of greed to an Athens screen for years
now, so his presentation should be a lot of
fun. Look at www.athenscine.com for full
details.
The Library Is Cool, Too: The ACC Library's
iFilms series got the short shrift in this col
umn last time out because of space limita
tions (not the same ones referenced above);
that's regrettable, because the folks there
have been bringing in some really well-chosen
movies of late. The next is They Came to Play
on July 7, a 2008 doc about the International
Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs,
which brings together 75 of the world's
best—you guessed it—amateur pianists,
for a musical week in Fort Worth, TX. June
14 is Silent Light, which I described thusly
in my "Best Films of 2009" list (at position
# 2): "Watching Carlos Reygadas' strange,
lovely fable of faithfulness and infidelity in a
secluded Mennonite community in Mexico is
like adopting the perspective of an alien, but
one endowed with a profound empathy for
humanity. It's a truly majestic film." I'll stick
with that. Screenings are Thursdays at 7 p.m.
in the auditorium of the ACC library at 2025
Baxter St.
Dave Mart lilm@tlagpole com
Jchmy Depp and Juliette Bmcche in Lasse Halstrom s Chocolat. opening this
weekend at Cine as part of the Summer Classic Movie Series
SUMMER CLASSIC MOVIE SERIES
July 8-14 Chocolat
July 15-21 . The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
July 22-28 Cluny Brown
JuIy 29 - Aug 4 The Blue Angel
August 5-11 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
August 12-18 Grease >
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SHOWTIMES & MORE INFO « ATHENSCINE.COM
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