Sunday, May 01, 2022

What Cinema Salon can do for you

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:

 
 
As a streaming-only viewer, these are the channels I find most useful, though perhaps the one I select most frequently on my Roku is YouTube.  It’s a cornucopia that can fill in any gaps you might find in your viewing (such as Stephen Colbert or Seth Meyers for me) and really opens up a world of searchable material.  If live sports are your thing, I note my good experience with sites such as MLB.tv or NBA League Pass.  Other than those, these are the streaming channels I rely on: 
 
[Worth continuing subscription]
Criterion Channel
HBO Max
Hulu
PBS Passport
Kanopy (if you can get free with a library card)
 
[Worth month to month consideration]
Netflix
AppleTV+
Amazon Prime
 
[Worth a free trial or single month sampling]
Disney+
Showtime
Starz
Britbox
Acorn
 

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