Sivad, Ingmar Bergman And 30+ Years Of Change
November 1, 2009 - Author: newscoma - Comments are closedI have spent the better part of the morning here reading about Ingmar Bergman. When I was a kid, you were more likely here in Hoots to see a variety of exploitation films, Burt Reynolds was huge or the occasional bad horror movie at one of the local drive-ins. (Yes, I hate that those have gone the route of the dinosaurs.)
The first time I really saw in horror movies was when we finally got cable about the time I turned 10 or 11. Before that, we had rabbit ears that brought in a station from Paducah, one from Jackson, the local PBS station and, if luck was on my side, Ch. 13 out of Memphis, which had a creature feature show that I lived for.
It was canceled when I was a little tyke, but my mom would let me stay up and watch it.
Our first pay-for-cable channel was The Movie Channel, where I was mesmerized watching Altman films, Harold and Maude the first time (yes, that movie still make me cry like a baby and laugh at the same time) and The Tin Drum, which to this day still creeps me out in so many ways. I bet I’ve seen it several times though even though it gives me the wiggums.
Bergman was not someone I was privy to, and as it happened in the days before the Internet, I would read magazines that my parents were kind enough to give me, and plot ways to see the movies listed in Rolling Stone or the New Yorker.
I finally got to see Fanny and Alexander, The Seventh Seal and a few others. This morning, as I was dorking around the tubes, I started to read the reviews of every film he ever directed, his unorthodox views of theocracy and how it impacted his writing and how he would go through depressive bouts in relationship to his craft.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like all of Bergman’s stuff, but I do appreciate his vision. I guess this goes back to the young girl who read of Sweden’s premiere director and had to be cunning to see what all the fuss was about because at that time, you couldn’t see his films here. You just couldn’t.
So, you see, the Internet can help rural Americans in a way that was not an option when I was a curious child that loved the backroads here but needed a little bit more sustenance than Burt and Sally.
I think about these things sometimes.
Categories: Memphis, Movies - Tag: Broadband Access, Ingmar Bergman, Memphis, Sivad
Discussion (3 Comments)
It would be FANTASTIC if WHBQ could release a Sivad DVD or something like that. I still remember the opener and that usually creeped me out enough to turn off the tv before the movie started!
i think i first learned of Bergma via Woody Allen parodies and such. but i do recall reading thru some old New Yorker magazines in the early 70s, dumped onto me by an older brother who had brought them home from college.
i loved reading all the dozens and dozens of film reviews, some large and some just blurbs of what was playing in Manhattan, which i read with a ravenous appetite as most of the movies never came anywhere near me in middle tenn.
it was like a mini-film course, ranging from classic to foreign to new releases.
i do like Fanny and Alexander, but mostly i found Bergman to be utterly depressing stuff. locally hosted horror flicks on late night teevee were far more instructive and valuable. maybe all that cold weather in Sweden makes folks depressed.
They were very depressing, Joe, there was no doubt. I know that I was intrigued only because I couldn’t see it. (If it wasn’t for The Movie Channel, I would have never seen my first Woody Allen film, whom I’m also hot and cold on. When he’s on, he’s great. When he’s not, Oy.)
And creature feature hosts are what saved me as a kid living in Hoots.