That Man Behind the Curtain

Film has often turned the camera on itself: for stories set on film sets or filled with Hollywood intrigue. Actors and directors, even the occasional writer or producer have been the protagonist in feature films. The projectionist however has mostly remained out of the spotlight, and is only very rarely given a starring role. This supercut rights that wrong, with an impressive compilation of clips from the projection booth.

 

The strength of this montage is in its unhurriedness (it doesn’t have the short attention span of most supercuts) and in some nice combinations of clips from wildly varying source material. Perhaps most interesting is that it illustrates how these scenes from the projection booth often profess a very material love for film. They focus on the tactility of working with celluloid, on the materiality (and fragility) of film and of the images it contains. Whether it’s Gremlins on the loose or a censor at work, they all revel in putting their hands on the stuff dreams are made from.