A stretch of travel has prevented the cinetrix from consuming anything cinematic,* but she did stumble into a fascinating conversation with the Fesser's uncle, also a professor [of French history], visiting the east coast from his home in northern California for his 50th reunion at Harvard. Which means he started in 1954, the year after the Brattle launched as an art house. He chuckled and said he'd actually written some film reviews for the student paper back in the day.
The subject of film originally came up because the Fesser's uncle mentioned working in a visit with his old pal Tom Scott while he was here. The same Tom Scott who pretty much designed the sound stuff at Skywalker Ranch and worked with Walter Murch on Apocalypse Now. Squee! And off we went.
Over the course of the conversation that followed, he asked me whether I thought Harvey and Haliday had modeled their theatre after the Cinematheque. Bien sur! Here's why he asked: Turns out after he graduated he headed to Paris to do graduate work and lived, you guessed it, across the street from the Cinematheque in the early 60s. Langlois in the maison! Good times.
Later, said uncle confessed to the Fesser that he'd enjoyed our talk but was used to teaching history, not being it.
*Though she ate lunch at a diner in Mayberry and toured the cash-strapped Twain house within a single 24-hour period.
