Jeremy and I went to Bryant Park Monday night to see the outdoor showing of All The King’s Men, the 1950 version directed by Robert Rossen and starring Broderick Crawford, who won an Academy Award ® for his portrayal of the charismatic Willie Stark. We sat on a blanket. We ate pizza slices and drank sodas. From time to time, Jeremy worked on his ibook and I read part one of a four part article The Washington Post ran in June on the Vice-Presidency of Dick Cheney. We talked some. I nibbled on licorice whips. We both people watched: the lawn was full of people seated on their blankets, picnicking, talking, laughing, drinking. A woman with a green balloon and a clipboard roamed the grounds talking to people. She passed me by but didn’t (thankfully) talk to me: who knows what she was representing. When the sun went down, Jeremy and I leaned back, propped our heads on our backpacks, and let the show begin.
Bryant Park’s Summer Film Festival (sponsored by HBO and Citibank), whose offices are across the street) began 15 years ago and the rules are pretty simple: find a spot on the lawn and lay claim to it. Lawn spots go quickly (my friend Jenna once made the mad dash to claim a spot sound like the releasing of the hounds.) but latecomers need not fear because there are chairs and tables set up around the perimeter. The sound system could stand some rethinking, especially if you’re sitting near the back (Jeremy and I watched the Steve McQueen film Bullitt from the back last year and the dialogue came off as macho mumbling) and the films are occasionally rained out but despite all that the experience of watching a film there is wonderful.
Outdoor theatres are nothing new of course. From our origins as feral, mumbling cavedwellers, people have taken time from life’s demands and gathered ‘round various specialized locales (campfires) to watch other people tell stories. The Greeks made things more official with amphitheatres and festivals for Dionysus which led to the bloody, pre-Siskel & Ebert carnage of the Roman Coliseum, the roaming Dell Artian pageant wagons and Shakespeare’s Globe, right on up to the 60’s site-specific Happenings, Suzuki’s outdoor presentations of Bunraku puppets, Joseph Papp’s Delacorte Theatre, Arena Di Verona’s outdoor operas and the many high priced, public-fund sucking sports’ arenas dotting major markets throughout the United States. (I prefer playground soccer, football and baseball diamonds) Movies are usually a more insular experience but ever since Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr. of Camden, New Jersey nailed a screen to some trees in his backyard and placed a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car in 1932, film has joined this illustrious crowd.
Watching a film in Bryant Park – especially old black & white films like All The King’s Men - is a singular experience because the sound system and surrounding building’s simultaneously take you out of, and constantly remind you that you are watching a film in, the middle of the city. (Bryant Park is located on 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and not that far off from the lights and nonsense of Times Square) Audience reactions (laughter, cheers, boos, groans) seem to rise, scatter and dissolve into dark sky. If the picture is engaging, the surrounding traffic with its roaring engines and excessive horn honkings combine to create an underlying hum which mixes nicely with the crackling echoes produced by the film’s struggling speakers. If not so engaging (Bullitt is not an outdoor movie), the extra sounds mixed with the light from the surrounding urban landscape expose a larger, slowly moving picture of what over 500 people crammed into a small space might look like from a satellite – or at the very least, a small bird. (With excellent bladder and bowel control, one would hope.) It’s surreal to be both inside and outside of an experience but it can be a thrilling alternative to the pace and scope of everyday life.
- The Poop Report are very happy with the newly renovated Bryant Park public restrooms.
- All The King's Men tells the story of Louisiana Governor Huey Long. Wikipedia provides a brief bio
