AMC CHRONICLES THE EARLY DAYS OF FILM WITH THOSE WHO REMEMBER.Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer ``Long, Long Ago,'' an hourlong American Movie Classics show filled with reminiscences about the early days of silent movies, is as homey and chatty chat·ty adj. chat·ti·er, chat·ti·est 1. Inclined to chat; friendly and talkative. 2. Full of or in the style of light informal talk: a chatty letter. as a visit with your grandparents grandparents npl → abuelos mpl grandparents grand npl → grands-parents mpl grandparents grand npl . The show, which airs at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on AMC (Advanced Mezzanine Card) See AdvancedTCA. , features 26 seniors ranging in age from 93 to 111 remembering the movies in the days when cameras were hand-cranked, the screen might be a sheet strung between two poles, and a rinky-dink piano or an organ provided the only sound effects sound effects Noun, pl sounds artificially produced to make a play, esp. a radio play, more realistic sound effects npl → efectos mpl sonoros . The brief interviews are interspersed with period music - some sung by the seniors themselves - and clips of silent movies featuring Rudolph Valentino Rudolph Valentino (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926) was an Italian actor. He was born Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi in Castellaneta, Italy, to a middle-class family. In the 1920s, Valentino was known as a Latin sex symbol. , Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton Noun 1. Buster Keaton - United States comedian and actor in silent films noted for his acrobatic skills and deadpan face (1895-1966) Joseph Francis Keaton, Keaton , Mabel Normand, Roscoe ``Fatty'' Arbuckle, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and other silent-screen stars. Lewis Bogach, the film's executive producer and founder of AMC's film preservation program, said the aim was not to make a history of film. ``There's been documentaries about the making of the movies, but I thought it would be interesting to hear about the impact of the movies from regular folks,'' Bogach said. It took about a year - working with nursing homes, government agencies and over the Internet - to find more than two dozen people in nine states who not only remembered sitting in the dark and watching stories played out on the silent screen, but who could talk about their recollections with passion and humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was , he said. To direct, he chose Ray Farkas, who specializes in filming interviews with people over 100 years old. Farkas said he wanted to make the camera as unobtrusive as possible so the seniors interviewed would feel as if they were privately reminiscing. Only natural light and tiny clip-on microphones were used, and rather than positioning cameras the usual five feet away, a camera crew shot from the far corner of the room with a zoom lens, he said. ``My theory is that you get closer to the truth the less intrusive you are,'' he said. ``We put people together and let them talk to each other rather than interviewing them. People are endlessly wonderful if you put them in a setting where they can be themselves.'' |
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