"the streaming revolution has been something of a disaster for classic movies. It has, in fact, been slowly and methodically wiping the collective culture’s memory of anything made before … well, 1973"
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One Letterboxd user was surprised by the high quality of “an old movie” they’d watched - from 1994! Like we were still at the dawn of cinema then! My 18yo is enjoying different genres/eras of film on her Media course, but friends her age refuse to watch a b&w movie, or old-style opening credits.
It's a massive pain trying to find older movies now because the platforms have the remakes. My daughter however did her dissertation on early 20th C German Expressionist films, and we go to watch them when we can. We saw Caligari at an arthouse cinema a while back.
This is why I am stocking up on Blu-rays of my favourite films. We're all going to end up like those eccentric protagonists of Philip K Dick novels who, for example IIRC, cherish old opera 78s in a future where no one listens or even knows anything about opera.
I bought a 3-dvd coffret of Jacques Demy/Catherine Deneuve films from amazon fr because they were so hard to find in the UK on dvd or streaming (I’ve ditched amazon now). I imagined by this point I’d be reducing the physical stuff in my home, not acquiring more.
Amen to that. We have a ton of DVDs too and are unlikely to get rid of them given this environment, esp. the need to be on loads of different platforms if you are after specific films.
Mind you, I am a bit, ahem, retro when it comes to viewing anyway. We have a cathode ray tube TV that is older than my daughter (who is in her 20s) and she and I are waiting to see how long it can keep functioning. OH keeps begging for a new TV and we say NOPE.
It's crazy they haven't got anything like Moviedrome now. Though I guess television audiences are so splintered these days it would have to be on YouTube or something.
Yep, it's hard to get hold of old movies so sometimes I buy DVDs, and you can find some classic films on Youtube. I'd be glad of any streaming site recommendations! The best would be if someone took the initiative to start a rival site to Netflix with only classic movies and series!
Are TCM or Criterion Channel viable streaming options?
Physical media has (other than vinyl) basically disappeared: on Google at least I couldn’t find a single physical store offering BluRay or DVDs 📀 in greater Cape Town (supposedly the cultural epicentre of SA 😬)
I don't think TCM or Criterion channels are available in Europe, but I can't afford streaming subscriptions anyway. But I already have amassed a ton of DVDs and Blu-rays, so that should keep me occupied until I die, or the electricity gets cut off. (Even then, I still have plenty of books to read.)
I became interested in films via 1960s TV. Ones that stuck in my brain include Le Salaire de la peur; Roma ore 11; The Red House; The Lost Weekend; Alias Nick Beal; Night of the Demon etc. Parents left me to my own devices apart from the first TV screening of Psycho, when they sent me to bed early.
I saw so many of my favorite movies by watching them on cable just because they were on, or visiting the video store and just picking up something I had never seen before out of curiosity from a box cover or recommendation from a clerk/random stranger.
Midway through the 1960s my dad started buying me BFI/NFT membership as a birthday present every year & took me to see a lot of old French films he had grown up with eg Un carnet du bal, Mr Hulot's Holiday, À nous la liberté, Pépé le Moko, Le million. I couldn't have had a better education.
I don’t think this is streaming so much as it is time. When I was a kid, the entire history of cinema was living memory—you could talk to someone who’d seen the very first movie shown in public. Now it’s history, and people don’t have much interest in history in general.
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Physical media has (other than vinyl) basically disappeared: on Google at least I couldn’t find a single physical store offering BluRay or DVDs 📀 in greater Cape Town (supposedly the cultural epicentre of SA 😬)
Criterion Channel is so breathtakingly great that it’s hard to understand why it isn’t a first priority service for anyone who likes movies.
Yep, can probably buy 2 or 3 DVDs for the same $25 we pay every month on Netflix 🤔