Petrelis Files

Hope for Cinema: PFA's 'Pather Panchali' Sold-Out, 100 Turned Away



For longer than I care to recall, the death knell  has rung for cinema as we've known it at film festivals, the dwindling number of art or repertory houses and in magazines around the globe. The rise of home theaters, online streaming and the phasing out of making movies on actual film or screening of celluloid prints are contributing factors behind the exaggerated claims of cinema's demise.

Thanks to the wonderful administrators and funders, and devoted patrons, of the Pacific Film Archive I am here to say loudly and clearly there is hope for cinema and I witnessed it with my own eyes on Friday, January 17.

The occasion was the launch of the PFA's extensive Satyajit Ray retrospective with a screening of his first film "Pather Panchali", and a restored 35mm print no less. Showing up forty minutes before the scheduled showtime, I was pleased to see a horde of folks milling about the entrance on the UC Berkeley campus and as I got closer I realized there was a rate stand-by line. A lobby door displayed a "SOLD OUT" sign, which made me happy so many wanted to see the film but I also worried my comp ticket might have been sold. It wasn't!

I shot a few minutes of video footage of the stand-by line, dozens of people streaming over the steps from the walkway to the entrance (reminiscent of the ending of Ray's "Distant Thunder"), a young man asking to purchase a ticket and then a mature gentleman selling an extra ticket to the first person on the stand-by line.

Before the show, programmer Susan Oxtoby made introductory remarks about the Ray series and how it continues into the summer months, then turned the mic over to preservationist Josef Lindner who shared tales of locating and restoring Ray's works. While it was fabulous to hear their remarks, I also wished they held a short chat afterward to further enhance the special evening, now that we had all seen the beautifully restored print and heard that terrific Ravi Shankar music.

All 222 of the PFA's seats were occupied during the film and in addition to us old-timers, there was a healthy number of 20-and-30-somethings (with lots of that age range turned away), and in the row behind me a couple with two boys around 7 or 8 years old. I estimate at least 100 people were turned away during the time I was outside and the disappointment of those without ticket was pronounced.

Needless to say, I hope to catch as many of the other Ray films in this series and smart cineastes know to run to Berkeley for this rare opportunity to see this great director of world cinema's output on the big screen and on 35mm film.

Cinema is not just the projection of images with light onto a screen. True cinema, in my book, is complete only when an audience has gathered in a communal venue -- a film archive, a theater, a school classroom or church basement -- to collectively watch movies. The most important image is that of people in seats gazing up at the silver screen.

In response to the overwhelming number of people who couldn't get into see "Pather Panchali" on Friday, the PFA will be showing it, and the entire trilogy of which it is part one, in the early summer. For more info check the PFA site.

Do your part to keep cinema alive and well, especially at our Bay Area art houses including the PFA, the Rafael Film Center in Marin County, the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, and Yerba Buena Screening Room, the Castro Theater and the Roxie Film Center all located in San Francisco.