You Never Know When You’re Living in a Golden Age
September 8th – September 14th
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession – A documentary from Alexandra Cassavetes (daughter of John Cassavetes & Gena Rowlands) about the cable channel whose status rose through the eclectic film scheduling by its head programmer Jerry Harvey. Harvey and the Z Channel championed unloved & unseen films, bringing them to a larger LA audience. Through this, it seems, they were able to introduce the “director’s cut” to the mainstream. At one point in the documentary, the talking heads discuss how Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America was panned when it was released in its original form. But after the longer director’s cut was championed by Harvey and Z Channel, the critics fell in love with it. Ahh, the importance of editing. I mention this because the discussion that followed this film centered on how much of this documentary should have been cut. I felt 30 minutes could have been lopped off, while Sarah suggested that a full hour should have been left out. I liked all of the clips from some of the movies that had appeared on the channel. And I enjoyed most of the talking head stuff. You got a sense that the programming was really quite eclectic, unique, and influential. But that’s about where it all breaks down. Seeing these clips drawn from an eclectic group of movies made me want to explore more and more of the cinematic landscape. But whenever the film veered off into Jerry Harvey land, all I could do was to wait for the next set of clips. It’s hard to care about, much less celebrate, the programming creativity of a man if you know that he’s capable of so much violence. Still, the documentary rekindled my love for movies in a way–added a spark to the fire–for which I am grateful.
