Yeah, I know, he doesn’t look angry — but trust me, there’s righteous movie-loving rage behind those smiling eyes.
Here in Southern California, we might have a health crisis like the rest of the nation, but amongst the burgeoning Cinephile-American community, the hot topic is the scheduled end of weekend film programming at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) later this summer. There’s been a lot of apt criticism — and in retrospect I feel I was bit too blithe/fatalistic about it in my first post about it.
A museum should not have to be slave to film fashion anymore than it should take down it’s Chagalls every time there’s an upsurge of interest in Picasso, or vice versa. If the world’s premiere film city can’t have a place — at a museum, for pity’s sake — that shows important films from the past, including ones with limited audiences, then maybe all of film is in danger of losing its sense of history and with it, most of its soul. It’s ironic that a still lingering sense of snobbish diminishment of film as a somewhat lesser art form might play into it. I thought we were well past that.
As Don Scorsese, il capo di tutti capi of film geeks put it:
I support the petition that is still circulating, with well over a thousand names at this point, many of them prominent…People from all over the world are speaking out, because they see this action – correctly, I think – as a serious rebuke to film within the context of the art world. The film department is often held at arms’ length at LACMA and other institutions, separate from the fine arts, and this simply should not be. Film departments should be accorded the same respect, and the same amount of financial leeway, as any other department of fine arts.
That petition is growing, by the way. Particularly if you live in Southern California, but if you care about movies and live anywhere, it’s time to step up and sign on the dotted line. Think of it as your proper obeisance to Don Marty.
