And what you can do for
Cinema Salon. This is an unashamed pitch
for readers, a plea for people to see what is on offer here, to sample my
recommendations for your viewing pleasure.
See for yourself, then tell your friends. I’m not looking to create a viral sensation, but
just a web of connection to like minds. Allow
me to indulge myself with the notion that Cinema Salon is not merely
self-indulgence but a public service.
I try to provide concise and
cogent viewing advice for friends and potential friends, to report on my extensive
viewing in a manner that is copious but not tedious. The aim is to capture my own reaction to what
I watch for my own recall, and to offer some consumer guidance to others. I certainly have my convictions – both
enthusiasms and asperities – but try not to have opinions. Though never definitive, my commentary may be
indicative, guiding you toward unsuspected treasures.
This is my autobiography in
film watching. To an unusual degree my
life has been defined by all the films I’ve watched. I approach the world as a distant observer,
so cinema has provided a portal to worlds I would never have known, helped me
understand people more than I ever could in person. I subscribe to Roger Ebert’s definition of
film as a “machine for empathy,” and the most basic question I ask of cinema is
whether it expands the range of my human sympathies, does it help me to
understand people as individuals, or in groups, in different times and places?
If a movie is trying to be an
amusement park ride or house of horrors, a puzzle to solve or video game to
play, with tokens instead of real people in real situations, then I will have
to be convinced of some special appeal to give it a look. Among the genres for which I have little
patience: action/adventure, horror, sci-fi,
fantasy, police or legal procedurals, or any mystery where plot takes
precedence over character, anything that was originally a comic book.
I’m inordinately fond of
documentaries, receptive to imaginative animation, predisposed to old films and
foreign films, with a predilection for realism or neorealism in all its
varieties. I no longer draw much of a
line between film and television, it’s all grist for the mill.
Another of my touchstones is
Grierson’s definition of documentary as the “creative treatment of actuality,”
with as much emphasis on creativity as on actuality. If “all art aspires to the condition of
music,” as Walter Pater and others have asserted, then I would counter that the
best cinema aspires to the condition of documentary.
So in reading my abbreviated
cinematic commentary, it helps if you know me and my predilections personally,
but I trust that in reading my reactions to all these visual provocations, you
will come to know me, for better or worse.
That might not be much of an
inducement, but there are a number of factors that may make Cinema Salon useful
to you. Primarily if you are thinking of
cutting the cord, or have done so already, to save that monthly blanket cable-tv
charge and replace it with selective subscriptions to streaming channels.
This site is committed to the
primacy of streaming, since I haven’t been to a movie theater for many years,
and very rarely resort to a DVD. I put
in the effort to keep abreast of what’s available on all the various streaming
channels, and frequently offer channel-specific updates.
Along with streaming
availability, I always include the Metacritic rating in my listing, with direct
links to more info on the film or show, including trailers and reviews. That’s one way I maintain the initial impetus
for Cinema Salon, as a virtual film discussion club, in continuation of the
actual one I used to convene at the Clark Art Institute.
Metacritic is both filter and
portal. As a rule, I have to have some
collateral incentive to watch any film with a rating under 70, or any tv series
under 80. But the website opens up a
world of connections to continue the virtual conversation.
No longer programming
screenings at the Clark , I had thought about abandoning this tie-in website
but found the resolve to continue, and now expect to keep it up as long as I am
permitted the frivolity of watching movies and tv as if there were a living in
it, as well as a life.
Again, my ideal reader is
someone who has cut the cable cord, or is contemplating doing so, and who
approaches visual media with a sense of purpose and an open mind, rather than
looking for mere distraction or background noise.
If you fill that bill, please
click the “Read more” link to see my ranking of streaming services:
