Subversive and Captivating
When I was growing up, we went to a conservative church that had members pledge they would not go to movies. The church declared paying money for a movie, whether Disney cartoons or Hollywood drama gave money to people who did not advance or live a moral lifestyle. My parents signed that pledge before we had a television, but I saw more movies in my early years than any of my friends, and not on television.
We lived next door to a man who ordered and ran the movies for a local cinema. When he and his wife heard about the ‘no movie’ pledge, they were appalled. You’ll be cut off from culture! Your children will miss classics like Cinderella and 101 Dalmatians. And so they found a solution where we could see movies and not go to or give money to a movie theater.
Once a week, we’d rig up a sheet in our family room, and our neighbors would come over with a projector and huge round metal-cased films. Mom would make popcorn, and we were allowed the rare treat of soda. It was a full evening, cartoons a children’s movie, then we were shooed off to bed. The grownups would watch what are now movie classics, and some of those had Maggie Smith. I thought about this a lot today when I read of her death.
My two little brothers would stay in bed after they were tucked in on movie night, but when I was sure the grown-ups’ movie had started, I would go stealthily to the stairs. A couple of steps down I could sit and see the big white sheet and movie on the family room wall. I saw a couple of Maggie Smith’s earliest movies, Go to Blazes and The V.I.P.s.
I grew to admire story creation in film and have found movies of many genres important markers in my life, actresses, actors, directors, settings, and soundtracks. Acting and everything connected to it registered as powerful art in visual storytelling.
We moved when I was eleven. I no longer had access to cinema movies on a ‘big screen,’ made by the sheet and projector in our family room, but my parents purchased a new television. I found there were channels just for movies.
Scriptwriting is not something I have studied or practiced, but I appreciate the skills of people who can script a film or series. There is a kind of movie magic for the unique stories that affect audiences so strongly that people copy them for decades. Some years it seems all the movies that come out are copies or updated versions of a past award winner. In the original outstanding films, with portrayals so real that they grab our minds and hearts, actresses and actors have the power to connect and inspire through the decades. They draw fans who will follow them through decades. Some do this just in their work, and some also lead and inspire through causes they support and people they help outside of their movie careers.
I think it takes a lot of courage to put oneself in front of a camera or behind a camera, directing in the creative endeavor that will be shown in film for more years than a person may have on this earth. When I read that Maggie Smith left this world today, I thought, I am thankful to have seen many Maggie Smith movies over the years and enjoyed her down-to-earth honesty in the 2018, Tea With Dames. Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins, and Dame Joan Plowright, these women award-winners, reminisce and show the importance of friendship, love, and humor through all of life’s ups and downs.
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“Movies touch our hearts, awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, and they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our lifetime. We need to keep them alive.” Martin Scorsese
