Renny Manne Cont 3 ...

And not just brilliance … some absolute masterpieces that changed the world forever …well, changed my world anyway.

Television was also a medium that trained generations of filmmakers …and still does.

It wasn’t just Paddy Cheyefsky and Sidney Lumet who cut their teeth in one of television’s golden eras …it was also Woody Allen and Neil Simon who received their own orthodontal diplomas in television’s golden period of live comedy and variety. Then you think of Spielberg and his ilk, helming the likes of Night Gallery and even an episode of Columbo, up to and including Edward Zwick segueing from Thirtysomething to the Glory of the big screen.

But don’t even just look at the migration in one direction. The opportunities of ‘form’ that TV open’s up has even seen the likes of Mike Nichols, amongst many other cinema icons, helm a mini series (Angels In America).

Then there’s Orson Welles, Lucas, Kubrick, Woody Allen, Hitchcock, Truffaut, Peter Weir, Busby Berkley, Stanley Donen.

Cinema is also one of those art forms that not only affects you the moment you saw it for the first time, but stays with you forever. It provides indelible memories of time and place.

“Sure, my first time getting to second-base was during The Mummy Returns at the Palace on Main street. Boy, that was some movie.”

Didn’t Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch first open your eyes to intolerance? Weren’t Klatu Verada Nichto the first words you’d ever heard that addressed the issue of Government being the problem, not the solution? And that visual crescendo of the Italian Stallion doing his victory dance on the terrace of Independence Hall … didn’t it truly fill your heart with hope?

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