Time flies. Faster than I would like. For more than 5 years I’ve been writing down my opinion about films I’ve seen. It won’t give me eternal fame, but I discovered that I really liked the writing part. And I must admit that I received very nice comments about it on rare occasions. Only recently I had the idea to put similar blogs under the spotlights. Those people deserve their “5 minutes of fame”. A genuine reward for the efforts and dedication they show for what has fascinated me all my life. The 7th art. The moving image. The medium that moves you into a different artistic universe for a short period of time. And of course, I thought Carolina’s initiative of “Let’s go to the movies” was sublime. The subject simply sounded as follows: “The film that started it all”. And I didn’t have to think about that for long.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
I’ve always been fascinated by the phenomenon of a screen. Already since I was a child. Looking back, the screen has always been at the center of my life. I still can hear my mother tell about me as a baby. I jumped around the room with my baby seat until I ended up in front of the television. I can also clearly remember how as a 7-year old I went to the local cinema with some friends and my father to see a Walt Disney movie. My first experience with the phenomenon of cinema. Most probably it impressed me, but not as much as when I went to town as an 11-year-old to watch “Star Wars: A new hope” with an uncle. This was pure magic and a breathtaking experience at the time. Perhaps this movie won’t be so impressive today when you see the standards of CGI. The impact of digital technologies is huge nowadays. Nothing is impossible anymore in the world of film. But the feeling I had after I left the movie theater, is indescribable. It was as if I had experienced a revelation. This action-rich film full of heroic characters and heroic battle scenes just took my breath away. I’m sure I was staring at the screen open-mouthed, while Destroyers filled up the entire screen and X-Wing Starfighters fired their laser rays on them mercilessly. Without a doubt, my love for the phenomenon of movies started there. Unfortunately, there has not been a single film that gave me a similar feeling until now.
The horror film that took away my fear
And then there’s a movie that heralded a second revelation. It’s not that this classic is a superior film. The movie “Evil Dead” was the starting point for my love of horror. Before I saw this film, I had an indescribable fear of the unknown. A small fragment from some meaningless horror film was enough to scare me shitless. Surely I wouldn’t sleep a wink the following nights. I’d crawl into bed behind my huge teddy bear. The teddy bear was my defender against all evil in the middle of the night. In my youthful fantasy, I thought that if something evil would enter my room, the bear would be the victim instead of me. I would survive. Until I gathered the courage and put “Evil Dead” in the video recorder. And to my surprise, this film looked like it was a typical film. Even better. That night I slept carefree while that big, worn-out bear thrown in a corner of my room. That was the moment that I realized that the fear I experienced until then, was unfounded.
Let me conclude
That’s it. My small contribution to this wonderful subject. My love for the medium of film will always exist. Maybe it’s an obsession. And there’s always that wry feeling that there’s still so much undiscovered terrain.
Let me end with a quote that says it all from Martin Scorsese :
“Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our life time, we need to keep them alive.”