Life in Pictures
It's a great time of year to see a movie. Autumn clouds have moved in over our mountains, the trails are too muddy for mountain biking, the ski resorts aren't open yet and darkness sets early. What better to do than sink into a cozy theater seat and get lost in your imagination?
My love for the movies started early. When I was a girl, my grandfather was president of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. I was spoiled. The first big screen movie I ever saw was there. Riding in a yellow cab through grey Manhattan on Saturday afternoons - subway steam oozing up through sidewalk vents, pigeons flapping their wings on stone window ledges - made me feel like I was the star of some gritty black and white film. And then to slip from the grey steaminess into the warmth of Radio City's beautiful old theater, with its red velvet-covered seats, the huge stage draped with a thick gold curtain - it was magical.
Back then, my grandfather still called movies "pictures." It was his job to choose fine quality family-oriented films to show in the historic theater. I remember seeing Doctor Zhivago and The Sound of Music and The Love Bug and The Cowboys. I loved the crisp crackling sound of the film moving through the projector, the razor sharp clarity of the big image on the screen, the smell of my grandmother's perfume caught in the soft collar of her fur coat, upon which I rested my head from the seat beside her.
In junior high, "going out" with a boy meant going to the movies on Saturday nights with a big gang of kids, driven there by someone's Mom in an old brown station wagon whose back end sagged to one side. My beau would eat a gallon of buttery popcorn, rather quickly, and then wipe his hands off on his pant legs and take my hand, entwining his slippery fingers with mine.
In Park City, I revel in two cultural gems - the Park City Film Series and the Sundance Film Festival. Like amicable cousins, these two entities work together to bring incredible works of art to Park City citizens. The Film Series shows a bunch of Sundance films that you might have missed seeing during the crowded time of the festival itself. This past year I've seen Juno (which won the Academy Award for best original screenplay), Man on Wire (won the grand jury prize in the World Cinema Documentary competition at Sundance last year) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (won a slew of Academy Award nominations).
All of these films were fantastic and moving in different ways. Each of them changed my life a bit. After seeing Juno, I immediately purchased the soundtrack, which I'm now addicted to (as are my young sons). Man on Wire taught me that if I were to give one ounce of the enthusiasm Philippe Petit invested in his dream (to tightrope walk between the Twin Towers) to any of mine, I would surely achieve them. And The Diving Bell and the Butterfly reminded me to keep up on my cholesterol medicine because I sure as hell don't want to have a stroke and end up a prisoner in my own body. And it reminded me of the triumph of gloriously stubborn human spirit. And how much I love French women's overwhelming femininity.
Aside from the great films shown at the Park City Film Series, I'd go every weekend just to experience the pre-game show: climbing the creaky stairs to the theater, the smell of books in the air from the library below; local volunteers selling cookies, candy bars and coffee; and board president Frank Normile's announcements and raffle prizes. You might be lucky enough to win a T-shirt from Recycle Utah, a restaurant gift certificate, or something that Frank has personally chosen from the grocery store - like a can of SPAM, or better yet, spotted dick. The pre-film advertisements are oh-so-local and hilarious, and the pre-movie movie, starring local Film Series board members and friends, always unique and quirky in that colorful Park City kind of way.
The remaining films for the Park City Film Series this year are:
Elegy, November 21 - 23
Park City Filmmakers Showcase, December 3
Trouble the Water, December 5 - 7
The Motorcycle Diaries, December 10
Frozen River, December 12 - 14
I Served the King of England, December 19 - 21
Shows are at 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights and 6pm on Sunday nights, at the Jim Santy Auditorium in the Park City Library at 1255 Park Avenue.
What I left out:
Don't eat fish tacos before you go to the movie theater and expect to get away with it. "What IS that smell?" says a lady seated two rows behind you. "Something smells like fish!" Your snickering giggles will give you away.
Word of the week:
(I am an editor, after all)
When Obama got elected this month, some friends and I were talking about the whole "African American" and "Native American" terminology, and someone asked, well, what does "Caucasian" mean, anyway? Where does THAT term come from? Why is "Asia" in it? And I didn't know. Now I do:
1: of or relating to the Caucasus or its inhabitants (Caucasus was a region in Southeast Europe between the Black & Caspian seas, divided by the Caucasus Mountains) 2: of, constituting, or characteristic of a race of humankind native to Europe, North Africa, and southwest Asia and classified according to physical features - used especially in referring to persons of European descent having usually light skin pigmentation
Source: Merriam Webster Online
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Reader Comments:
I loved this story! It is always fun to remember, especially when you have such rich warm childhood memories like those movie outings in New York City with your grandparents, riding in a yellow cab absorbing the noise and lights and energy of the city. My favorite discription is "the smell of my grandmother's perfume caught in the soft collar of her fur coat,upon which I rested my head during the movie." Reading that I knew your grandmother's scent must have been Channel No. 5, the perfume my mother always wore.
I am struck by how different my first movie memory is from yours, taking place a decade earlier in a tiny theater converting from a Grange Hall meeting place in Hagerman Valley, Idaho, population 400. "Snow White" the animated Disney movie made it's way to the banks of the Snake River and mesmorized me. I was five years old and enthralled with the wicked witch and her tempting red apple.
Many, many years later my daughter's first movie can barely be remembered she has seen so many. Being a theater students and movie geek Sundance Film Festival is her favorite experience. Two weeks last January came alive for her as a dream on earth in Park City. Luckily she discovered Sundance when she was a senior in high school, otherwise she may never have graduated.
Thanks for your lovely comment, Lolly. The movies are just plain FUN for everyone!
Editor