Thoughts on Cinema and Traveling

since about the time i was in junior high, i started taking more of an interest in films. on lazy sundays after church, i would scour the section that listed all the films in theaters, giving a snapshot review and pertinent casting information. it was during this time that i began to increase my awareness and gain interest in films that weren't blockbuster types, even though i never was near enough the art house theater to see them.

my interest continued through high school and took another leap in college after my introduction to film studies class and being closer to theaters that offered a greater variety in film.

leaving for argentina in september of 2007, i vacated the US a couple months before films that would be released for the awards season. everything i read seemed to be lauding the films coming out like no country for old men, there will be blood, sweeny todd, the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford, etc. and so i would sit week after week, reading the newly released reviews and sigh, knowing that i had months before these films would be released in argentina. some critics even began to speak about 2007 as the best film year since 1994 and here i was in a place that may as well have been a galaxy far, far away.

the film that caused me the most duress was there will be blood. the director, paul thomas anderson, had already made one movie i adored (magnolia), one i liked a lot (hard eight), and one that had some amazing sequences but was a little uneven (boogie nights), but all reports coming from the US only had the highest plaudits for his newest opus. not only was he pairing with actor daniel day-lewis, not only did he enlist in radiohead guitarist johnny greenwood for the score, and not only had the preview i watched on youtube absolutely knock me out, but i had talked to some friends back home who had already seen it and spoke highly of it.

i felt like i was a junior higher once again, able to only read about all these great movies that were denied to me due to circumstances outside of my control.

although we had seen a couple films friends brought over in the first months of being there (rush hour 3 and blades of glory, thanks Marc!), i had yet to go to the theater or rent something i really wanted. i was so consumed with seeing there will be blood that i didn't even care. before Elizabeth and i left on our month long trip, i had checked to see when there will be blood was coming out. sure enough, it was while we were on the road at some undetermined location. but, as fortune would have it, the second day we were in salta, a place with two separate movie theater complexes, was the first day there will be blood was released there.

i was so excited and the film lived up to my wildest hopes. thankfully, Elizabeth agreed that we would take it easy and while in salta we saw three films over the course of three days. it broke the seal on my movie going and seeing in argentina. when we got back to buenos aires, our new apartment had a great video store around the corner and we realized that films in theater, if seen during the day, were dirt cheap as well.

i'll eventually get to a post talking about my favorite films of 2007, but i wanted to capture a little bit of the angst over being out of the country during such a fruitful period in film. rarely do i get to experience what are considered "great" films in theater because most of them have been made before my time and i feared i would miss it again by being out of the country. thankfully, i was able to rectify that before my return.