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As opportunities to see old movies fade, so does basic cinematic literacy

Whitty, Stephen
http://www.njarts.net/as-opportunities-to-see-old-movies-fade-so-does-basic-cinematic-literacy

Date Written:  19/04/2022
Year Published:  2022  
Resource Type:  Article

When it comes to the movies many people feel comfortable ignoring anything made before they were born. Black-and-white movies? Forget it. Silent films? Are you kidding? And I’m not even talking about teenagers, or casual fans. I've taught film students - many of whom want to make their own movies - who seem to think cinema started with 'Pulp Fiction.'

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Peter Bogdanovich, the late director (and journalist, and occasional 'Sopranos' cast member) hated that term. "There are no old movies," he liked to say. "There are only movies you haven't seen before."
When I first heard that, I sort of wondered what he meant, or why the phrase bothered him. Now I recognize the ageism. Calling something old is the new way of dismissing it, of brushing it off as out-of-date and ultimately inconsequential. That's why we're awash in businesspeople promising to 'reinvent' their industries, of politicians with 'fresh' ideas. What's gone before is, well, gone. It's an annoying prejudice in day-to-day life. It's ludicrous when applied to art.
...
It also seems to disproportionately apply to cinema. In other disciplines, works that have come before - whether it's Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Dickens' 'Great Expectations,' Miles Davis' Kind of Blue or Andrew Wyeth's 'Christina's World' - are seen as classics, as part of a continuum. They’re not simply written off as old, and true aficionados appreciate them on their own terms.

When it comes to the movies, though, many people feel comfortable ignoring anything made before they were born. Black-and-white movies? Forget it. Silent films? Are you kidding? And I’m not even talking about teenagers, or casual fans. I've taught film students - many of whom want to make their own movies - who seem to think cinema started with 'Pulp Fiction.'

Oddly, it’s a problem that stems, I think, not from lack of access to media, but from too much.

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