Fade In / Fade Out

Those of us who experienced our school days before the 1980’s remember the feeling that came when the audio-visual kid rolled the movie projector into the classroom, and the feeling was increased the bigger the movie reel!  However, there was also a feeling that came when the film escaped the clutches of the reel and came to an abrupt conclusion – it was over.

Well, that feeling has come to me as I have reached the end of a yearlong blogging commitment about my love of the movies.  As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, everyone who loves the movies is a self-proclaimed expert. Blogs, websites, movie star fan dedication pages, and critique sites are countless. If you love the movies, you have personal feelings and emotions that are attached to them, simply because that’s what movies do.

This same feeling is not unlike the feeling I get when I see my first theatre released film of a new year.  I see that new year copyright date in Roman numerals scroll up following the rest of the end credits knowing that all previous movie watching is now in the past. But, the good news is there is more in the coming year.  Hopefully there will be more good films than bad, new ideas than reboots and remakes, and memorable moments than forgettable ones.  There will be new stars on the horizon and legends lost to the ages. These legends truly will never be lost, however.  To quote myself from my very first blog of January 7, “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.”

I have enjoyed bringing this blog to the web for the year.  I will admit it has not been easy every week; some ideas have floated around for years and were ready to strike the page, while others were created for the week in their very own timing with much difficulty.  It has disciplined me to write and to be faithful to a medium.  

If I may, I would direct your attention at another blog about the cinema written by my son, Glenn. You can find it here at http://acinephileslens.blogspot.com/.  His unique and fresh perspective provides insight from the younger mind.  I hope you enjoy it.

So now 52 weeks and 49 blogs later, I end the way I began – with the Turner Classic Movies’ “TCM Remembers.” So many stars have left us.  I did not see Chad Everett, Deborah Raffin, Doris Singleton, Don Grady, Sherman Hemsley, Richard Dawson all who made films as well as making their mark in television, and I am sure there are more that I did not catch. We also said 'good-bye' this past week to Jack Klugman, Charles Durning, and animation innovator Gerry Anderson. Each one, whether highlighted or not, will be missed.  They will be missed long after this blog will be.  I know that these stars, even though gone from our daily movie-watching lives, will be seen on the screen for the years to come.  They have left us here and entered the heavenly galaxy of timeless legend. 

Fade Out -