Tonights ramblings are about two film related events over the weekend that just got me thinking about cine film.
On Saturday I went into our local HMV, which thankfully is still open. I like popping in there because you find the films you won’t find anywhere else a recent example being a Gerry Andersons ‘Stingray’ box set. I mention this because for about 30 years I have looked for a copy of ‘The Goalkeepers Fear of the Penalty’. This Wim Wenders film was shown on channel 4 in the 80’s and it was immediately in my top 20 all time best movies – it has remained there (alongside 2001, Alien, 2012, Predator, Independence Day, Groundhog Day, Das Boot, X-files yes all of them, The Passenger, Battle of Britain and more – are you reading this Harley ??).
The last time I saw a copy of the movie on VHS was in London and I did not buy it. I have looked on line but only ever found expensive vhs copies. Well Saturday I was astounded to find a copy of ‘The goalkeepers anxiety at the penalty kick’ by Wim Wenders – on blu-ray !! I did not find it in the German section (I like German cinema) but on another unrelated shelf. It took me a millisecond to make the decision to buy. So I was a happy bunny.
My second film related event was a cine film I made in 1984 with one of my daughters learning to walk. In 1984 we did not have widespread video recording and cine was pretty much the norm. It brought back some wonderful memories but it really made me think.
My daughter was pleased with the short MP4 that I made from the cine and have uploaded to YouTube. Judging by the views it has been seen and shared by 4 other people already and in a 1 hour time frame. So we have old cine film digitised and spread on YouTube. To do that would have been the stuff of science fiction when I made the film – and that was only 35 years ago.
Enough rambling. Time to get the cat in and go to bed. I’m already planning the next cine film to share with the kids.