{"id":46,"count":3,"description":"\"The best part of a Reg Hartt program is what he has to say.\"--Jane Jacobs. \r\n\r\n\u201cREG HARTT is what living in a metropolis is all about. He personifies the city as a meeting place of ideas, as a feast of experience and discussion and debate, as a triumph of the original and provoking over the banal and soporific.\u201d\u2013GLOBE AND MAIL.\r\n\r\nPaul McGrath, THE GLOBE AND MAIL\r\nSome audience members were visibly distressed by the frequency and force of Hartt\u2019s interjections into the program but it is clearly his chosen way of doing things, and the payoff in information is worth it. He has many good stories to tell: about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit\u2019s transformation into Mickey Mouse, Disney\u2019s most enduring character; about the furor that greeted the creation of Tweety Pie, which subsided only when the artists painted him yellow; and much valuable technical information for the animation students. He has some interesting tales about Mel Blanc, Warners\u2019 resident genius of voice characterization, as he continues the series with a full scale look at the Warner work of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, and others. It\u2019s the best work of its kind you will see anywhere because, except in rare oases in the United States and Eastern-Europe, they don\u2019t make them like that anymore.\r\n\r\nJULIA SCUTARU, retired journalist, Bucharest, Romania, 2000\r\n\u201cIn Toronto, I discovered by chance, Cineforum. Pure chance but a fortunate one. In that small room exhaling culture, passion and dedication, I watched the movie TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, an important historical, political and social document., and real artistic achievement\u2026.As a journalist (in Romania) I worked in the cultural field, including film reviews. Therefore I came to the Cineforum not just as a movie lover, but as a knowledgeable professional\u2026We live in an era authoritatively dominated by brainwashing and political correctness\u2026I admired Reg Hartt\u2019s courage and passion put in searching out and defending the human truth, the artistic truth, the historical truth; the Truth and unveiling it\u2026Discovering Reg Hartt and his Cineforum was one of the most important events of my visit in Toronto.\u201d\r\n\r\nDAVID BEARD, owner CINEBOOKS, quoted in THE TORONTO STAR, Nov. l, l979\r\n\u201cThis man has devoted his whole life to bringing the film classics to the public. He treats animation-cartoons, if you will-as art. He is underfinanced, overworked and snubbed. I think we should pay tribute to him.\u201d\r\n\r\nGREG WILLIAMS, MA (Ph, D. Candidate), President, University College Film Society, and Chairman of the Subcommittee for film, U. C. Symposium\r\n\u201cI wish we had more time to chat together last night about our respective (and mutual) interests in film. \u2018Cineforum\u2019 has attained the status of an institution; it represents an achievement of which you should rightly feel proud.\r\n\r\n\u201cI can only hope the \u2018University College Film Society\u2019 will someday approximate its success and that I will, personally, match your inspired delivery as a master of ceremonies.\r\n\r\n\u201cAs a newcomer to the business of arranging film programs, so far I am your equal perhaps only in enthusiasm. Thus I find your presentations to be not only exceptional in their content but also edifying in their execution. As an academic (in the field of English) I am also impressed by the high scholarly standard that pervades your informed and witty introductions,\r\n\r\n\u201cI frequently wonder if you have ever considered writing a history\u2026some very good books have been written\u2026but no text has dealt with it in a definitive way. A marshalling of your knowledge would, I am certain, produce a very fine volume indeed.\u201d\r\n\r\nFrom a letter to Ottawa\u2019s Towne Cinema:\r\n\u201cLast week I finally got a chance to see a film I have been trying to see for literally years. That film is METROPOLIS, and I don\u2019t mean Giorgio Moroder\u2019s head-banger version. No, I\u2019m talking about the most complete version of the film as it was meant to be seen in a l6mm print so clear, so clean you\u2019d think the film was made a year ago. Wow. I mean I have been hearing stories about METROPOLIS for a long time, but I never thought my expectations would be met let alone far surpassed. And this without the \u201chelp\u201d of Mr. Moroder. Does this mean there wasn\u2019t a soundtrack?\r\n\r\n\u201cFar from it. Accompanying the film was a brilliant (and I mean brilliant) soundtrack combining both modern music and classical pieces. This soundtrack suited the film when we all know Moroder\u2019s didn\u2019t. So who has this print of the film? Reg Hartt\u2026.If you know anything about Reg Hartt you know his lectures are anything but boring. He\u2019s thrown chairs at people, kicked non-believers out, slandered near everyone under the sun (who usually deserves it) and started near riots. In other words, a real entertaining guy. Honestly. Reg is a lot of fun, he knows more about film (and the politics of film) than all of my teachers combined. And his soundtracks!\u201d\r\n\r\nDOUGLAS ELIUK, education officer National Film Board of Canada; Canadian Cultural Attache to America: \u201cI have left so many cinemas looking like I\u2019ve been smelling onions for two hours that it is a pleasure and a catharsis to alert you to a redeeming film experience I enjoyed recently. It was not exactly an epiphany, but when something brilliant comes along, it deserves comment beyond self congratulations on managing to stay awake.\r\n\u201cWhat I\u2019m referring to is a recent screening of Fritz Lang\u2019s METROPOLIS I attended at Reg Hartt\u2019s Cineforum. I\u2019ve seen the film with every sort of accompaniment except organ grinder and a monkey. When organ and even the now rare orchestral accompaniments have been attached to one of the \u201csilent\u201d classics, it is still hard to avoid the giggle factor what with all the usual silent movie grand overwrought gestural school of acting methods. However, Reg Hartt has completely transcended the predictable approach and has presented a classic film with a brilliant multi-layered sound track that forgives the histrionic giggle factor. Hartt allows us to see a great film with a fresh perspective.\r\n\u201cI am not Mr. Hartt\u2019s P. R. council but as someone who has been in the film industry for decades and who celebrates cinematic excellence,I hope you will take the opportunity to experience this superb revitalization of METROPOLIS with its innovative music track.\u201d\r\n\r\nPETER MOORE, British Artist:\r\n\u201cI am a Brit artist. I love Toronto. I have sometimes heard it said that Toronto is boring. It is a comparatively well ordered city. Maybe that is why some imperceptive people think it boring. The thing is I keep having amazing successes in Toronto. My friend Bob Welton who decided he was much happier in Warsaw than in London used to say in London everything is possible and nothing is probable. I just find in Toronto not everything is possible but lots of things, important things, are quite probable. Does this make sense?\r\n\r\n\u201cANYWAY, a wonderful surprise in Toronto is Reg Hartt\u2019s Cineforum. I was walking down Bloor Street with my friend Alan, a composer, a Torontonian who, searching for fulfillment in London, has realized that everything he wanted existed in his original home, Toronto. It was my birthday. He said, \u201cWhat do you want to do for your birthday?\u201d I said, \u201cI want to go and see that!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI was pointing at a mysterious poster for TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, (the film of Hitler\u2019s l934 Nuremberg rally). I\u2019d always wanted to see that.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo we went and I found myself in the most perfect place on earth to watch a film. With the film was an unexpected treat\u2026.a brilliant, unbiased, sensible and stimulating introduction by the amazing Reg Hartt.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo once again, in German mode, we went to see Fritz Lang\u2019s METROPOLIS. Reg had somehow spliced on to the film his own soundtrack. Now this was interesting because a while later we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario where the same film was shown-much bigger screen-and with piano accompaniment. It was interesting to compare the two showings. Reg\u2019s came out winning.\u201d\r\n","link":"https:\/\/reghartt.ca\/cineforum\/?cat=46","name":"Lectures","slug":"lectures","taxonomy":"category","parent":0,"meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reghartt.ca\/cineforum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/categories\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reghartt.ca\/cineforum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/categories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reghartt.ca\/cineforum\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/taxonomies\/category"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https:\/\/reghartt.ca\/cineforum\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts&categories=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}