In the 2010s, they knew plenty about contemporary films but very little about the classics, and were far better versed in the history of TV. Sure, he couldn’t expect his incoming freshmen to have seen everything, but in the 2000s, they had heard of Alfred Hitchcock and Citizen Kane and Marilyn Monroe. In just 10 years, he said, the shift in students’ casual knowledge of film history amounted to a massive step in the wrong direction. I first noticed this problem a few years ago when discussing it with a film professor friend.
OLD MOVIE TV
One of the main ways people become interested in film history has been largely eradicated The Godfather isn’t shown on TV nearly as much as it used to be.
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If you already know you’re a film history buff, it’s never been easier to devour title after title, either on demand or on Blu-ray or on specialty cable channels and streaming services.īut the gap between “casual film fan” and “film history buff” has never been harder - or more expensive - to bridge. This is the great paradox of classic film in the age of streaming. “In a way, it’s more convenient to get these movies, because you can just get it sitting at your computer, but you’re not going to consistently get what you want in the same way ,” says Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for Turner Classic Movies. But will you, if you’re already paying to subscribe to a service that offers you oodles of options for a single monthly fee? Sure, you could rent Citizen Kane digitally, or you could buy a Blu-ray.
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You likely won’t find any of them, even though your garden variety Blockbuster probably would have had copies of all three back in the ’90s.Īnd Casablanca, The Godfather, and Citizen Kane are incredibly famous if you simply go looking for “any” old movie, the search can be even more futile, because Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu primarily focus on more recent fare. Look for Citizen Kane, the grandfather of classic American film.
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It includes hundreds of other films whose age doesn’t matter, because they hail from a nebulous past.įire up your streaming service of choice, be it Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu. Related Read David Bordwell's essential film blog