Memories

It's Christmas Day, yesterday, I watched Superman and Superman II: TRDC, followed by On Her Majesty's Secret Service. As you know, I only watch Supes ONCE a year because I like to preserve the magic. It was around this time that I first watched Superman - on Christmas Day, at 3:10pm, 1983. I vividly remember watching Superman II in 1984, I think it was a Saturday, and the picture started around 7:45pm. I remember sitting in front of the fire and thinking, "Who the hell is Mario Puzo?"

Christmas is a time of memories, at least for me. It's really the only time of the year when I can be a kid and forget the world outside. As far as I remember, Christmas was the time of the year when the TV stations (U.K.) pulled out all the stops and treated us to the big films. It was a time when wide-screen on television was considered blasphemous (recently, A League of Gentlemen was shown in 2.35:1 anamorphic! How times have changed!), I mean, did anyone care? Now, of course, I won't watch anything unless it's in its original aspect ratio but back then, you were happy just to catch your favourite films in any format. Now, I rarely watch the television over Christmas, and, although the TV stations still persist with the tradition, it really doesn't have the same effect. DVDs has really transformed my viewing habits, it has changed Christmas. I can watch what I want. Television, as we see it now, will probably not exist in the next few years. There will be no announcers, just a rolling schedule, or it will be ALL on-demand. Our kids will never know what we had to endure to catch our favourite films on the television: battles over the remote control are, I suspect, legendary in some households. Today's kids we'll never what it was like to wait 3 years for a film to appear on the television. They'll never know the ITV (U.K. station) Bond tradition. The excitement of catching a Bond film on TV was nearly orgasmic. See, in the old days, a Bond film captured huge viewing figures. In the '70s and '80s, the entire country (U.K.) stopped and huddled around a TV screen just to watch Bond. For Your Eyes Only, as an example, premiered 5 years after the theatrical screening!

I was thinking the other day -- the demise of a picture house showing ONE film for several weeks was something quite special. I remember the cinema being an event. I remember me and my dad catching two buses to get to the ABC cinema. I was always giddy inside, those bus journeys were quite something - It was the anticipation of going to see something quite memorable. I remember watching Return of the Jedi; this was my first cinematic experience. This was the time when they'd halt the film half-way so you could buy snacks from the confectionary girl. I remember, in 1985, when Back to the Future came out. I knew nothing about it. No trailers. No aggressive advertising campaign. After watching the film, I became obsessed with it. I bought the sticker-book and collected all the stickers. I eventually got all the stickers I needed. Yes, it was a rip-off but I was so desperate to have all the stickers that nothing else mattered. It was my treasured sticker-book until one day…
…it disappeared. I suspect someone stole it from me. I use to hide it under the bed, so not many people knew I had it. It was my most viewed rental of all time. I only just watched Back to the Future (again!) last week, and my hands still clam-up during the 3rd act. Is Marty going to make it? It's so tightly edited. That is great commercial film-making.

Renting a film was also an event. It was usually a Friday and we always ate Fish and Chips (U.K. tradition) and watched a movie. Sometimes my dad would rent something during a school night: Superman III was one of them. Being a school night, my dad sent me to bed around 8:30pm. I had to finish the film as soon as I got home from school, the next day.

I still treasure those memories, but one thing hasn't changed: the magic of film.

Happy Holidays.

BACK TO INDEX