Recently, my brother Luke was on the hunt for a movie named Hedda. Though relatively unknown today, the 1975 picture is the
only major theatrical version of Ibsen’s classic play Hedda Gabler, features the film debut of Patrick Stewart, and won
Glenda Jackson nominations for Best Actress at both the Oscars and the Golden
Globes. The film, however,
has never been released on DVD and exists only in limited quantities on old
VHS’s (a largely obsolete way to see the movies to begin with).
This got me to thinking A) if anyone knows a way my brother
could get a copy of this movie, share it in the comments and B) why, in an era
where we have so much access to television and movies at any given time, is the
number of films that are available to the general public not expanding?
This isn’t just true of Hedda-I
have dozens of movies that I try to record each month off of Turner Classic
Movies because Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming options don’t seem to
have them. Even something as
cinematically friendly as Greencine frequently comes up short when delivering specific
older films.
Turner Classic Movies has obviously been a major player in
expanding the conversation about cinema and access to classic movies (and if
they ever opened up their vault to a streaming service I’d be shelling out
pretty much any dollar amount they asked to subscribe), but they are only a
limited venue and can only put out so many movies a month. What baffles me is that we are striving
more and more to find original content on Hulu and Amazon Prime, but these
channels aren’t really competitive behind the scenes. Yes, all of them have access to Iron Man 3 on streaming, but what differentiates them other than Orange is the New Black? And is a video subscription service really
worth the monthly allowance if all you’re doing is comparing 3-4 original
series?
This brings up a larger perspective, of course, on whether
or not people want to actually see a film like Hedda anymore. Awards
fanatics like myself (and my brother) want to see it because completing the
1975 Oscars are at the top of our list, but the list of people who want to go
out and find a random Ibsen adaptation from the 1970’s featuring an actress who
gave up the cinema at the peak of her career some 35 years ago probably is not
long.
Still, though, isn’t this the point of art preservation and
creating these options? If museums
only cared about the hits, we’d have just a few paintings by Monet and Picasso,
and we’d skip every below-the-line artist. We’d have long ago given up on works by anyone other than
the Beatles from the 1960’s and most novels would have gone the way of the
dodo. And sadly, there are
centuries of music, art, and literature that have been lost due to just that:
there was not a public interest in keeping around what was current and new at
the time, and making it available to an audience that wanted to celebrate the
works, and therefore they slipped into the backgrounds of history, to be lost
or forgotten.
We’re coming to that point with the cinema, and with films
as recently as the 1970’s. In
addition to Hedda, Hester Street, another Best Actress
nominated film from that year, is basically without a modern venue to see it
(aside from television, and it’s on Turner Classic Movies tonight, so set the
DVR!). 1974’s Shanks starring Marcel Marceau in his first major cinematic role is
considered controversial and bizarre if you look at IMDB reviews for guidance,
but it’s never been released on any form of home entertainment despite an Oscar
nomination and a famous main actor.
It’s a shame that these films, celebrated and Oscar-nominated in their
time aren’t available for anyone to investigate and revisit.
I will say that if public demand is high enough, a
DVD/Blu-Ray will become available.
26 years after the film was released (and seven years after it was
released everywhere else on the planet), Ishtar
became available in North America despite years and years of begging from
cinephiles wanting to investigate the infamous Warren Beatty bomb. Ally
McBeal (TV, but still) took years of online fan petitions before FOX
relented with a DVD release of all of the episodes.
However, these are fairly recent productions, and I think
it’s high time the studios and AMPAS make a point of releasing all of these
films to the public, whether through streaming services or hard formats. AMPAS in particular should protects its
legacy by making as many nominated and winning films available to the public as
possible-it won’t matter that you’re celebrating films each year if they are
considered disposable fifteen years down the road and not available for people
to go and investigate. It can
hardly be supremely expensive (considering the billions of dollars of its
membership) to use some of their dues and donations to bring nominated films
back to those that celebrate the cinema of yesterday and today. I know I’ve gotten on this high horse
before, but I won’t rest until it’s not just TCM and Criterion doing this great
work, but truly all of Hollywood.
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