revival at the cinematheque

Cinema needs a structural reformation -- in how it packages itself, in the way it presents itself to us. Seeing Grindhouse in theaters last year drafted a promising outline for this reformation of the cinema experience. But, as mentioned, Grindhouse, conceived by Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, is a rough draft and revisions still need be considered. In concept, Grindhouse is simply a remix -- recapturing and redressing the experience made popular by 60s and 70s movie houses that played B-movies and exploitation films as double and triple-features... mainly out of capital necessity.

The distinction is that Tarantino and Rodriguez (with the help of Eli Roth, Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie) personalized the entire cinematic experience. From the faux trailers to intermission to the actual pictures (Planet Terror and Death Proof), they created a thorough, blanketing cinematic atmosphere to immerse in. So, perhaps, the only modifications to the Grindhouse blueprint is its excessive run-time (191 minutes), and more broadly, that Grindhouse shouldn't be relegated to kitsch appeal and limited to only cineplexes. This can encompass all of cinema. There are already bargain double and triple-feature DVDs selling out there. Why not intentionalize the act, and not just randomly bundle together 3 abandoned, poorly-received popcorn flicks.

Again though, the 3 hrs. 11 min. run-time was exhausting. In this post-ADD era where the profile of short films have climbed and feature-lengths dip under the traditional 90 min. barrier with increasing regularity, even cinema flirting in the 2 hr. zone leans toward overdrawn. And this isn't meant to debase the epic 3 hour narratives, but constructing a concentrated cinematic experience centered around 2 feature-films each running around 45-60 min. in length would enable more efficient, mediated works of cinema and offer the audience a more economical and enveloping adventure complete with connective theme and adornments such as brief behind-the-scenes interviews, faux trailers, etc. ... and all in comfortable 1 hr. 45 minutes. But, the fulcrum relies on the collaboration of auteurs, at least in the onset. Inspired by Three...Extremes, where Fruit Chan, Chan-wook Park and Takashi Miike each offer up a 45 min. segment on the macabre, I imagined going to the cinema and experiencing a Sofia/Roman Coppola double-feature collaboration or a platform showcasing an upcoming auteur coupled with an established artist like P.T. Anderson. Or even embracing our "mash-up" construction, the double-feature could also be David Jacobson's Down in the Valley and Scorsese's Taxi Driver or Wes Anderson's Rushmore and Ashby's Harold and Maude, whatever the auteur sites as his/her fundamental inspiration for the piece.

...As a side note: America, we need to stand up and recognize our true artists -- we may be the only region that rather than celebrate our artists, makes the process more difficult for them.