The end of an era came to pass on a Monday just over two years ago, as the Edmonton Film Society said goodbye with a final screening of Casablanca. Revered as the quintessential Hollywood film, it was the perfect choice for a reluctant parting. And yes it was reluctant, as over the last few years the allure of seeing a classic movie on the big screen at the Royal Alberta Museum became somewhat diluted by the numbers and sizes now available to our loyal audiences.
I first started coming to screenings in the spring of 1996. Here is the first film I saw:
Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and a young Marilyn Monroe all frolicked in Monkey Business. Over the years I had the opportunity to watch a few more Humphrey Bogart classics:
A fine mystery with Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet. But the best was yet to come:
Katharine Hepburn joins Bogart for a screen pairing like no other in the 1951 classic The African Queen (yes, shot in the real Africa, as well as Uganda, the then Belgian Congo and the UK). Bogie's Charlie and Hepburn's Rose have outstanding screen chemistry as they travel down a river. All romantic screen pairings should have this much thought put into them.
But here is the movie that has stayed with me in my two decades of EFS screenings:
The Apartment, 1960's Best Picture (which also won Oscars for director Billy Wilder and also for Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's screenplay) has all the seemingly light-hearted laughs present in the trailer. But as in all of Billy Wilder's best work ( Some Like It Hot and The Fortune Cookie to name just two), there is a decidedly dark tinge to the proceedings that just wasn't present in the films of other comedy stars such as Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
Jack Lemmon stars as C.C. Baxter, a bachelor insurance salesman attempting to get ahead in the company by loaning out his apartment key to his coworkers and boss for their various trysts. He is often inconvenienced, literally being made to wait out in the cold as his officemates take mighty advantage of his generosity. Thank goodness for the commiseration and warmth of elevator operator Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine).
Anyone wanting to see what a departure it was for Disney icon Fred MacMurray to play Baxter's cad of a boss Jeff Sheldrake should spend some time on Disney+ watching The Absent-Minded Professor, Son Of Flubber or The Happiest Millionaire. Mad Men's Don Draper definitely has some of Sheldrake's DNA, and I would not be at all surprised if director of photography Joseph LaShelle's sweeping yet stark depiction of office life was an influence on the later show.
Lemmon is at his early-career best, playing Baxter as a man at first pleased to be "one of the boys" before ultimately having to decide between office track success and his humanity. MacLaine deftly infuses Kubelik's warmth with a world-weary sadness at the lecheressness bubbling just underneath midcentury work life. She probably would have won the Oscar she was nominated for, had Elizabeth Taylor not both cheated death and acted in Butterfield 8 that year, playing a call girl. "I lost to a trachenonemy," MacLaine quipped. And although Taylor was grateful for the industry goodwill that got her the award, she absolutely HATED that it was for that particular role.
I must confess that I was able to amass all this knowledge only through more than two decades of attendance at Edmonton Film Society screenings, as well as board memberships. I will always treasure the film memories and friendships I made in all that time.
These days, classic films are available on streaming services such as Netflix and the just-launched Disney+.
And Turner Classic Movies, celebrating 25 years this year with its excellent selection of timeless hits, rarities and even silent films, is a worthy companion to curl up with on a cold night.
And classic films are available for viewing in a variety of ways, including your tablet and smartphone. Even as Jerry Lewis once famously opined that there was never any way he'd ever watch Lawrence Of Arabia on a phone.
But truly, if you have a film society anywhere near you, and you are able to go, do it!
Or even a like-minded friend or two, going to a specially-selected theatre in your town (maybe even a heritage one) to see Martin Scorsese's The Irishman before it hits Netflix!
Maybe even coffee and discussion afterward!
That's how iconic film critic Roger Ebert began his journey in criticism, even before the Chicago Sun-Times and the TV shows with his rival and friend Gene Siskel!
Because there is nothing like discovering a wonderful film in a room with like-minded people!
So to my friends in the former Edmonton Film Society, thank you so much!
It is quite something to ask people to volunteer and be present every Monday night at 8 to sell and take tickets. Most of you for over three decades.
And it is something else again to realize and weather changes in technology.
Also to recognize and nurture a love for classic film, and the shared film experience, among the younger generations.
We sure did try, to the very end.
I salute you all, as well as our friends who have passed on.
And to our very loyal audiences who came out week after week for decades, thank you so very much! We could not have done it without you!
Here's to film...in all its forms!
MTMG
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