The hot topic in Hollywood right now is the diverse new
class of movie folk (774 of them) who’ve been invited to join the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite
controversy, most of the attention has gone to the fact that many on the invite
list are people of color. (Last year’s Oscar-winning Moonlight has itself spawned a large group of invitees, including
director Barry Jenkins, actresses Naomie Harris and Janelle Monáe, and
cinematographer James Laxton. ) But Justin Chang’s article in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times points out another
aspect of the Academy’s new thinking: it’s reaching out to respected filmmakers
from all over the globe. Chang happily enumerates offbeat but worthy new
academy members from Brazil, Greece, Japan, Hong Kong, Portugal, Iran, and the
Philippines, along with a gaggle of Bollywood stars.
I can’t pretend I know every name on Chang’s list of
moviemakers from foreign lands. (Shame on me, of course, but there are so many
movies and so little time.) Still, I’m thrilled at this recognition of the
international appeal of cinema. My recent travels have reminded me that a love
of movies extends far beyond American shores.
Film history snobs will be quick to point out that
moviemaking was international from the start. In many ways it began in France
(via Georges Méliès and the Lumière brothers), and some of its most prized
stylistic ideas came from Russia and Germany. But there’s no question that
Hollywood-style movies became pre-eminent, and the stars of Hollywood’s Golden
Age are still cherished the world over. Case in point: last week when I walked
into a trendy Amsterdam coffee bar, I was instantly captivated by its décor. On
its walls were dozens of close-up movie stills of such celebrities as Marilyn
Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Paul Newman, each of them posed clutching a cup
of coffee.
Many cities around
the world have film centers where fans can gather to watch and discuss movies,
as well as enjoy movie-themed exhibits. In Paris, the Cinémathèque Française is
legendary, dating back to the saving of silent films during World War II. New
York can boast its Museum of the Moving Image, now housed in a former building
of the historic Astoria Studios in Queens. Shockingly, Los Angeles has never
had a full-fledged film museum, though the American Cinematheque screens films
both in Hollywood (at the Egyptian Theatre) and in Santa Monica (at an historic
neighborhood movie-house called the
Aero). Happily, a long-awaited museum sponsored by the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences is now under construction next door to the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art.
In Amsterdam, I was privileged to visit EYE Film Institute Netherlands, housed in a spectacular building across the Ij River from the
city’s central train station. (Its name comes from a pun on the Dutch
pronunciation of the river it overlooks, and you take a free ferry ride to get
there.) On a recent Saturday evening, I arrived too late to enjoy a vast
display of memorabilia relating to the career of Martin Scorsese. But I could
choose between four films to watch in comfortable screening rooms. In this
particular timeslot, only two were in English: an ethereal Japanese travelogue
on Mt. Fuji and Raoul Peck’s hard-hitting I
Am Not Your Negro, based on the writings of James Baldwin. I watched the
latter, surrounded by respectful Dutch viewers. And then there was time for a
glass of wine and a tasty meal in a busy café overlooking the lights of
Amsterdam. The Dutch know how to do movies right.
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