{"id":9953,"date":"2010-03-25T08:07:47","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T12:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9953"},"modified":"2010-07-01T14:52:23","modified_gmt":"2010-07-01T18:52:23","slug":"the-balcony-is-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9953","title":{"rendered":"“The balcony is closed.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Movies<\/i> is now over<\/a>. Forever.<\/p>\n

Watching Siskel and Ebert was a ritual when I was a kid. I loved that show. Through those two critics, I realized at a very young age, that there was a big world out there, of movies I had never seen, names I had never heard of – and they would casually reference things like “Herzog” or “Barbara Stanwyck”, in context of some other review, and I would wonder what they were talking about. And sometimes I would make it my business to find out. So that is how I discovered movies. Not just the ones playing at the local cineplex, but movies with a capital M. The entire industry and its history. Once Ebert started publishing his compilations of reviews – I think I bought my first one when I was 13 – and forget it: I read every single review, and half the time I had no idea what he was talking about<\/i>, but I wanted to hear more. I was the same then as I am now. Present to me a world I know nothing about and make it seem appealing and fascinating and well worth your time – I’ll dig into it. I can’t even describe how influential those books were to me. Half the time, I couldn’t even get my hands on the movies he discussed. This was before there was a VCR in every house. But I filed the names away in my head, for safekeeping, for later. John Cassavetes. Ingmar Bergman. John Ford. The list goes on and on. The most amazing thing about At the Movies<\/i> was what sets it apart from other “reviews”: They weren’t just telling you about the latest blockbuster, although they covered those too. They reviewed foreign films, they reviewed smaller experimental films, they introduced their television audience to the wide scope of what was being made – and their reviews were thoughtful and personal.<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of years, At the Movies<\/i> has gone through a lot of upheaval, well-documented, I won’t go through it.<\/p>\n

All I can say is: a big part of my life – my childhood, yes, but my love of At the Movies<\/i> lasted way after my childhood – has now ended, and that always gives one a strange melancholy feeling. It is a reminder of the passing of time, that I am not as young as I once was. One of the things I loved to do (back when movies weren’t as easily accessible as they are now – you had to limit yourself to what you could rent at the local video store) was put stars next to movies Ebert had reviewed, reviews that seemed intriguing to me, and then see if the local store had it. I am sure so many people out there had similar experiences. I saw my first Fritz Lang movie when I was 15, 16, because of a comment Ebert made in a review – that wasn’t even a review of a Fritz Lang movie. But he would throw references around like that, and I just wanted to know – know everything he was talking about<\/i> – He cannot be allowed to just mention Fritz Lang without me understanding him!! Next time someone says “Fritz Lang”, by God, I will understand!<\/p>\n

Roger Ebert has some words to say on his blog<\/a> about the ending of At the Movies<\/i>, and highlights some exciting new prospects for a new show. I think he’s right (at least in my experience hanging around with online film critics and film bloggers – not to mention the people who comment on such sites): People watch more movies now, due to the many different venues where you can get your hands on such films, even if you live in the boonies. You don’t have to wait for there to be a German Expressionist film festival in the big city 2 hours away from your house to gorge yourself on Fritz Lang. It could be years. People in my generation who are film buffs know what that feels like. I would scour the TV Guide every single week, looking for any Elia Kazan movie that might be playing. This was when I was in high school. They were usually playing at 2 o’clock in the morning, or sometimes, excitingly, they’d play on the weekends. But that was how I got a chance to see those movies.<\/p>\n

It’s different now.<\/p>\n

You want to watch every single film Kurosawa made? You don’t need to rely on your mom-and-pop video store, or (God forbid) Blockbuster. Netflix has them. So while the situation may seem bleak if you look at your choices at the local movie house – it really isn’t, because there are so many other ways now to see movies – the movies YOU want to see.<\/p>\n

Regardless: Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, sitting in that balcony, arguing and talking and basically educating me, were such a huge part of my life for so many years. It is sad that it is gone, although it was time to let it go. (Once they got rid of the balcony and created that new set which made it look like Entertainment Tonight<\/i>, you could see which way the wind was blowing. There was a total identity crisis.)<\/p>\n

Go read Roger Ebert’s elegy<\/a> for the show that introduced so many of us to the glorious enterprise that is “the movies”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Movies is now over. Forever. Watching Siskel and Ebert was a ritual when I was a kid. I loved that show. Through those two critics, I realized at a very young age, that there was a big world … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,31],"tags":[1169],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14036,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953\/revisions\/14036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}