cteq, again

the Melbourne cinematheque is going to save me from myself! in exchange for $75 I am allowed to see three or four hours worth of movies, in the reasonable comfort of the state cinema, each Wednesday night for the rest of the year. Apart from the obvious enjoyments there is also the not so small boon of getting out of the house, and away from the pursuit of dullness, in a nice easygoing regular way.

A cinema-by-subscription series works on you quite differently to a random cinema visit, at least that's my theory. We have been in the habit of seeing two or three movies a week for almost a decade and we usually go to one of three cinema complexes nearby, but because everyone knows the rest of the audience is there on a sort of whim, you feel utterly anonymous and the whole thing is an extra dimension removed from reality.

But when the same people turn up week after week, I've noticed, you start to recognise people and the experience becomes a bit more communal. A similar thing happens at film festivals. I like it.

Anyway, last week was Bergmanorama; two depressive-modern movies from 1963: The Silence, which I thought was just riveting and quite marvellous, and Winter Light (also called The Communicants) - interesting too but a lot less absorbing. Next week, two Neil Young movies (Greendale & The Year of the Horse) - bound to be fantastic.