Life at 24 Frames a Second
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David Thomson, author of the Biographical Dictionary of Film, takes a highly personal journey through how cinema has changed both him and us.
Film has changed us. It is all too easy to forget what a shock the coming of the moving image was to our world. First we could see ourselves and then we could imagine ourselves and then we could hear ourselves. How we kissed, fought, dreamed and died have all been projected around the world.
Episode 1. In the Dark.
David Thomson writes:
"Do you want a map for the dark? By now you either know the history of the movies or you have it wrong and all mixed up. It doesn't matter, the mixture is in your unconscious and your nervous system, and one of the consequences of the movies is that we trust nothing and imagine everything. That's why the dark is so important."
Episode 2. Fear & Desire
Film is many things, but its ability to carry us into the darkest dreams and fiercest desires of its characters via the magic of the score and the sound binds us all in the dark.
Epidode 3. Wired for Sound
The dream of a universal language of film, even one that took place in silence with titles, died as Al Jolson sang for his 'mammy' in The Jazz Singer (1927). A new age of dreaming and illusion was upon us and it had many voices.
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Replies
Thanks Rick...I learn something new and different everyday from Times Past.
Bob
Lovely series Rick.
David Thomson makes a superb presenter. I shall try and read his book.
Life at 24 Frames a Second by David Thomson
Episode 9: The Last Flight.
Flight begins almost at the same moment as the motion picture camera cranks into life and many of its early directors had themselves taken to the air to experience the tumult of the clouds. Flying on film, the camera swooping through space, promise escape. It is close to a dream. The dream of total immersion as we enter the screen and lose ourselves, perhaps forever.
Episode 10: Fade to Black.
For the past two weeks the film critic and writer David Thomson has taken his own highly idiosyncratic journey through the power and magic of cinema. But now he considers whether, under the relentless spread of visual media, and in the age of instant delivery, the dream palaces are places to dream anymore.
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Producer: Mark Burman.
Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 3:45PM ,
Mon, 17 - Fri, 21 and Mon, 24 - Fri 28 Jan 2011
Duration 10 x 15 minutes
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Life at 24 Frames a Second by David Thomson
Episode 7: The Look of Love.
We got to the movies for many things, including spectacle, thrills and wonder, but many go to fall in love - again and again - with the thrill of romance and a kiss as big as a house. Thomson wonders how love blows us apart.
Episode 8: Happy Endings.
Escaping into the world of flickering dreams, finding happiness over the rainbow, and realizing that everything is going to be all right in the end is one of cinema's most powerful allures. But is the chase more appealing than the pay off?
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Life at 24 Frames a Second by David Thomson
Episode 4. The Big Kill Off.
Cinema has made us see death and final moments in any number of fiendish and inventive ways, but is it a little too in love with this shadowy realm? Thomson remembers those who lost their celluloid lives and entered our collective dreams.
Episode 5. You Must Remember This.
"Every movie is about time passing away and memory trying to say it was a story."
Episode 6: If it Moves, Shoot It.
"There is violence in the medium. It begins with being in the dark, monopolized and compelled by the light. There is a kind of imprisonment. It is then increased by the way film can cut. And cut is a very appropriate word."
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