Last week I was lucky enough to attend a screening day hosted by Park Circus to celebrate their 15th Anniversary.
Screening a few classics such as the 4K restoration of the 1988 action genre godfather, ‘Die Hard’, Billy Wilder’s ‘The Apartment’ and the film that most of the audience hadn’t seen in a long while, Sidney Lumet’s 1964 film, ‘Fail Safe’. There was also a panel to discuss the importance of screening classic films on the big screen.
Watching ‘Die Hard’ in the morning was a smart move on a programming side of the event. It definitely woke everyone up and got everyone, dare I say, pumped up and excited for the panel.
Chaired by writer and film critic Simran Hans (@heavier_things), the panel included Clare Binns (@ClareLBinns); Joint Managing Director of Picturehouse Cinemas, Shira MacLeod; repertory film programmer and Cinema Director of Regent Street cinema, Roman Wood; (@rowanwoods) co-founder and co-runner of programming collective Misc. Films and Development Executive at BBC Films and Jason Wood; (@jwoodfilm) Artistic Director of Film at HOME, writer and Professor of Film at Manchester School of Art.
One the main questions that was asked of each panel member was why they thought it was important to still programme classics:
Shira: Old films are more honest. Before they started making blockbusters, they used a typewriter, before they used special effects, there’s something about the writing that forces you to look at the acting. {Classic films] just better.
Clare: I love films whether they are old, now or films in the future but I think it’s often we find with our [Picturehouse] vintage season, its people who haven’t seen these films on the big screen bfeore that are coming to see them, its not old people coming to see these films, its younger people who may have seen these films on TV, online or Netflix but we all know seeing a classic film in the cinema with other people is something like nothing else in cinema, it brings people together. Those films are wonderful, they have stories to tell and the other thing is of course a director like Hitchcock never made a film over 2 hours. They get to the point, they do what they say on the tin and it’s just extraordinary to show these films in cinemas, so I’m a big fan.
Roman: I think we show old films for the same reason that we read Dickens or read Middlemarch [or intend to read Middlemarch]. I think its about cultural heritage and its about the enrichment you get from engaging with something that’s just good enough to be endured that long. I think watching old films helps to contextualise the newer films we watch. There are really compelling cultural reasons why we should engage with classic cinema but also, in a more practical sense its increasingly difficult to fund/find classic cinema/films outside of cinemas. Twenty years ago TV was a real home for classic film and for enriching your film history or blockbusters or the aisles of HMV or Fopp and now its increasingly hard to find those films and they’re not available that much on streaming services and there isn’t the same kind of careful curation on streaming services. So if you don’t know what you’re looking for and if you’re not looking the hot new release, its hard to know where to look. I think the careful curation of classic film in cinemas is really important for preserving the history of an art form and for catering to existing audiences and for the hunger that is out there and for developing knowledge and passion with a new audience. It’s also really important to make a case for preserving film as an art form and not just another form of content.
Clare: Because of digital, we show films in 35mm and we’re [Picturehouse] currently showing ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in 70mm. Digital had allowed these films to be shown. Back in the day when we showed ‘Some Like It Hot’ it was inevitable that most of the prints didn’t have the last line on it because someone had taken it off, the reel was so badly damaged. There were so many films we used to show in rep (repertory cinema), the prints were in terrible condition and now because of digital and companies like Park Circus, we can see these films in a way that I’ve never seen before and look so good. This is another way that film has really benefitted and we can now show films the way they’re meant to be seen.
Jason: We have to recognise that film did emerge from a vacuum and its good to go back and revisit history. I think its important, that if you look at the screen behind me, there is a huge difference here and screen 1 and from watching a film on your phone or at home. The rise of online service providers, particularly Netflix, we need to remind people how great it is to see a classic film on a screen like this. Its also great to revisit films that have been bulldozed over by history, like ‘Daughters of the Dust’ which was rediscovered last year and premiered at the London Film Festival and the upcoming ‘Just Another Girl on I.R.T’ at Cinema Rediscovered, its important to look back at some these classic films by female filmmakers, black filmmakers, LGBT filmmakers and drag them out from the vaults to remind people of some the great filmmakers of the past.