Well, I am kind of blown away tonight. As things stand, this was the final night for the Thursday Night Cinematheque screenings at The Armer Theater at CSUN, and I can't believe I will no longer be sitting in my front row seat on Thursdays at 7pm, with my movie friends from the community, and with Professor Tim close by at the podium, ready to introduce us to each week's film with a short lecture.
I'll talk about tonight's movies, but first I want to talk a little bit about the Cinematheque. I discovered this local cinematic treasure just a week or two after it began. In September 2009, I was leafing through a copy of the Sundial, CSUN's student newspaper, and I saw an ad for a Jean-Luc Godard movie. I'll have to dig out my journal from that year to see which one it was, cause I always write down every movie I see, but anyway, I saw the ad, and it said that the screening was "open to the public".
A free Jean-Luc Godard movie? I'm there!
2009 was a transitional year for me, and though I was barely hanging on financially, at least I had a steady job refurbishing a house in Reseda. I was making just enough to eat and pay my rent, almost literally. 2008 had been tough. In addition to being broke, I'd also lost my Dad and my best friend Mr.D that year. They died within a few weeks of each other. I was barely holding on to my apartment, but then in late '08, my life began to turn around. First, I got a job at Kmart as a cashier. It was only a seasonal job for Christmas, and I was apprehensive when I took it because I had never run a cash register before, and had never worked retail. I thought I would not make it through my first day, but I wound up adapting very quickly, and I ended up enjoying my brief Kmart job very much. It was at the old Northridge Kmart behind the Mall, and I was there for the store's going out of business period, which lasted from November 2008 until February 2009. I also worked at a poll in Century City on Election Day 2008, when Obama became President, so things were looking up for me. Then, in April 2009, I got the job at the house in Reseda, which belonged to my sister's friend. That job only kept me afloat, just enough for rent and food, but I knew it was gonna last for at least a year, and so during 2009 I was able to relax a little bit after a tense couple of years.
At the time, I was spending my evenings at the Oviatt Library. I didn't have a home computer, and I had only recently finished working on my book about 1989, which I wrote almost entirely at the Oviatt. It was likely there at CSUN's Libe that I picked up a copy of the Sundial and saw the ad for the Godard movie. It probably said something about a series of films or a retrospective, but all I remember is just thinking, "oh, I like Godard. I'll go check it out for something to do".
So I went, and I sat in the front row. I always sit close at the movies, because - just like at rock concerts - I want to be immersed in the experience. There were a lot of students there, and I kind of wondered "is this cool"? because I was not part of the University. But the ad had said, "open to the public", so I figured I was okay.
I figured that the lights would go down and they would just show the film, but I was wrong. There was a podium up front, and within a few minutes, a tall man approached it and introduced himself. He was Professor Tim, and he proceeded to give us some background on the film we were about to see. he probably also showed us some documentary material related to the movie. He had a very informal but very involving manner of presentation, and boy did he know his stuff. Right off the bat, I knew he was a movie fanatic like myself.
And so this was my introduction to Thursday Night at The Cinematheque, as hosted by Professor Tim. I didn't know it that first night, but I was hooked. To cut to the chase, I continued to attend. I was there the next week, and the next, and soon the whole semester went by and I had seen about 12 Godard films, including perhaps 8 that I had never seen before. And all of this was for free, and in a state of the art theater where talking and cell phone use was actively discouraged each week, via a polite but firm announcement by the Professor. These screenings were to have the reverential presentation of a classical music concert.
So when the Jean-Luc Godard series ended in December 2009, I was thrilled to hear that the next retrospective would begin in just six weeks, at the end of January 2010, when Spring semester began on campus. I had sat in my front row seat for every film I'd attended, and hadn't been asked to move, so I was feeling right at home. On the last night of Godard, The Professor announced that the next series would commence in the Spring, and would be a retrospective of the films of Federico Fellini.
Whoa! So of course I was back.
When I came back the following semester for the Fellini, I noticed a familiar face or two. Not of students, but of older folks like myself (wait a minute, Ad! What's this "older folks" stuff?) It's just cause University students look like kids to me, and I feel like a kid myself but don't look like one, haha.
But yeah, I noticed a that a couple of fellow attendees looked familar. And that's how the Long Time Fans Of The Cinematheque came into being. These were all fans from outside the University. Some came from a fair distance, like Venice or West L.A.
But I was the first of the Long Time Fans, and I was there since the third week of the Cinematheque, and during the course of our nine year run, I would estimate that I saw approximately 270 films from 18 directors, from countries all over the world.
We finished up with a retrospective of the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda, and I will have to write more for you tomorrow night as the hour is now late and I went into more detail in my preamble then I had thought I would (as usual).
So tonight is "Cinematheque Part One", and I will finish tomorrow night with Part Two.
Long live the CSUN Cinematheque, the great cinematic experience of my life.
And thank you Professor Tim. (Movie Hero)
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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