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Welcome to a new adventure, and thanks so much for joining us.
The idea for this festival is one I heartily embrace - I'm only sorry I wasn't the one who came up with the idea. It all started with the University of Georgia's Nate Kohn, who had so successfully launched the popular Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival in Illinois, a favorite destination for movie watchers every year since it began. Nate says he kept looking at the Classic Center in Athens and thinking “Hmmm, Classic Center - shouldn't there be some classic movies showing there from time to time?”
After that and following a great deal of work by Nate and many equally enthusiastic people, he talked to me about becoming involved, triggered by my own love of classic films and my association with the Turner Classic Movies television channel.
His suggestion couldn't have come at better time for me. I'd just hosted a special screening of “Casablanca” at the Alice Tully Hall in New York 's Lincoln Center. I hadn't expected much of a crowd to be there because, after all, hadn't everybody seen “Casablanca” already, so many times? Wasn't it already out on DVD? Wasn't it shown on television, especially on TCM, with some regularity? I was jolted when I saw the crowd. Every seat in that giant auditorium was filled that night, and a long line outside had to be turned away.
Before the screening, Humphrey Bogart's son Stephen and Ingrid Bergman's daughter Pia Lindstrom joined me on stage with a few others to talk about the film and its relationship on their own lives, something I enjoyed participating in very much, then the film started. I had no plan to stay and watch it again. I had, by my own calculation, already seen it probably 25 or 30 times. There was no need whatsoever to see it again. But I did want to at least check out the credits and the quality of the print, so I sat down - briefly.
One hundred and two minutes later, I was still sitting there, riveted. It felt as if I was seeing the movie for the first, not the 26th or 31st time. I got so caught up in the movie I'd forgotten to leave. That's why Nate Kohn's idea to have a festival of classic films, shown on the big screen again, so totally caught my interest.
It's rare these days when we get such an opportunity; and, as I realized at that “Casablanca” screening, as great as it is to be able to see films we love, or great films we've missed, on DVDs or via television screens, there is nothing quite like the impact of seeing them up there on a mammoth screen, sharing the experience with others.
I hope you'll be able to be with us for all the events. If you ever felt like wallowing in some great movie pleasures, this is the time to do it. Every one of the films is a gem and worth your time. And we also hope you'll have such a good time at the Classic Center you'll want to do it again, next year.
ROBERT OSBORNE
Host of Turner Classic Movies |
