RIGA - It's about time to stop talking about the end of the world: if you do not lie in the cemetery, then you are going to continue living, despite everything going on! Yes, this despite everything, because crises come and go, but we will stay!
This was said exactly 80 years ago, in September 1929, after the famous Black Tuesday - the fall of stocks on Wall Street, when the U.S. entered the dark waters of the Great Depression for a few years. Submerged, but not drowned, and those who did not lose their presence of mind managed through it. This spirit was maintained also by the cinema; therefore, and not by chance, this time will remain in history as the Golden Age of Hollywood. The number of cinema visitors increased by 58 percent, compared to a year before the 'disaster.'
That's when President Franklin D. Roosevelt said: "During the Great Depression, when the spirit of people is lower than at any other time, it is fantastic that only for a few cents an American can go to the movies and, looking at the smiling face of a child, to forget their troubles. In a difficult moment it is necessary to distract from the hard and hopeless life, to breathe in new emotions. If Americans would not believe or sympathize with tragedies, comedies, mental agony and movie heroes' successes, if the music of these films would not touch their hearts, it is unlikely that they would be able to find solace somewhere else."
People want to get out of the house, hang around with other people, share with them joint experiences, which means that while there is a movie, there is no reason to worry about the crisis.
And now the main thing: cinema returns!
International festival of film actors "Baltic Pearl" dedicates its latest autumn movie program to the Great Depression: gangster films, musicals, extravagant comedy, romantic melodrama, all the things that helped Americans to keep up their spirit and to overcome the leaning weight of despair 80 years ago.
The opening ceremony of the festival on Sept. 10 will feature a concert by the world-famous Glenn Miller Orchestra, which with its "Serenades" will remind you about not only the famous Sun Valley, but also about other favorite movies from the '30s 's '40s.
Of course, the festival has much more to offer during these ten days. So, film fans, get ready. This is a festival that promises to bring life to what has been an otherwise dull summer at the cinema. For those who care what they spend their movie money on, the Baltic Pearl is the place to be from Sept. 10-20.
Overall, the choice is yours! You can continue to wait for other 'disasters,' or you can, despite everything, go to the movies and leave troubles aside, to those who predicted them.
You say this is reckless? But what is life, if not a chain of reckless actions!
See you at the movies!
Baltic Pearl International Festival of Film Actors
Sept. 10-20
For more information and festival program:
www.balticpearl.lv
