Fade Out / Fade In

I wanted to start blogging again, and after the myriads of "In Memoriams" that occur at the end of any year, "TCM Remembers" (Turner Classic Movies) ignited my desire to start this blog once again.  Each year I watch this remembrance of who passed away during the year, and I admit I had forgotten some of these had actually died.  Why?  Because we have that wonderful gift of celluloid –film and the magic that made me fall in love with it when I was a girl.  These amazing faces, movie stars, if you please, were truly larger than life, and they took us to a new place each time we walked into that dark room ready to be transported.  Granted, I am a child of the 1960’s, and have no idea what it was really like to go see a picture say, in the 30’s, 40’s, & 50’s, but last spring, as Del Oro Theatre in Grass Valley hosted their ‘classics series,’ I got a taste - a delicious bite of movie star delectability.  Seeing Charlton Heston in “Ben-Hur”, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, & Rock Hudson in “Giant” (these both two of my favorite films ever, anyway) on the big screen took my breath away. 

I realized how these ‘stars’ were born and how unique each face was – unlike today, where so many are cookie-cutter  copies of one another.  I can’t tell the difference (nor do I really care to know) between Blake Lively& Sienna Miller or Ryan Gosling & Ryan Phillipe, and frankly, they just don’t hold a candle to the likes of these.

I would say Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton were the first stars I really recall being media personalities.  As a child, I would go to the beauty salon each week with my mother.  While I waited, I looked at the Hollywood magazines.  There they were, on every page, & I was fascinated. Although movie going was not encouraged in the home where I was raised, I would put my money on this as where my interest started.

Prior to the Christmas holiday, I happened to see “Hugo.”  It looked like a ‘discovery picture,’ with two children: One with a key and one with the lock that it fits.  I enjoy this genre. “Cheers” to the creator of this trailer, as this is what I thought I would see.  But as this film progressed, I actually had to catch my breath and wipe a teary eye, for this film renewed that which I first fell in love with, and I felt it again.  I describe it as “finding a cardboard box, opening it, and discovering valuable treasure.” Treasure that recalls memories.  Treasure that inspires.  Treasure that reminds us the good in filmmaking and the endless possibilities.

Movie critics and fans are a dime a dozen, myself included, each with our own picks & pans, and thankfully, this is love/hate relationship is subjective.  You may or may not agree with anything I have scrawled here in these few paragraphs; however, this blog is dedicated to the movies and all they contain.  I hope to write not reviews, but about the people, the films, anecdotes, and the magic of the cinema.

As the New Year is born, the old year fades into history.  But with the gift we've been given of film, may this never be.