From "Psycho" to ...."Love Actually"?

This one's weird, but I'm gonna go for it.

I've lived my life in a few different US regions -- Los Angeles certainly one of them, but other cities, too.

And this week, I returned to one of those other cities for a visit and elected to see a "special Christmas screening" of a favorite movie...at a very special place.

The movie was "Love Actually," which I have selected as my favorite movie of 2003 AND of the 2000's for reasons that are at once VERY personal(who I first saw it with and what it meant to HER), and evidently, a bit universal -- this has taken on "cult classic" status for reasons that people never seem to be able to put a finger on. I'll throw out a guess -- unlike the pallid American all-star knock-offs(Valentine's Day, New Year's Day, Mothers' Day) this movie feels eccentric, often off-putting, sometimes very cruel, sometimes very wacky -- there is something to the bizarre unwillingness of the film to adhere to any real notions of narrative that...have charmed a lot of people.

And this: the opening narration by Hugh Grant -- with real footage of real people greeting each other at Heathrow Airport(the greetings are always happy, as opposed to the farewells) as he tells us that none of the "farewell" cell phone messages on the 9/11 planes were of hate, but of love -- well, its profound and means a lot, I think.

Anyway, I like the fact that Psycho is my favorite of the 60's and Love Actually is my favorite of the 2000's because they illustrate to me that "the movies can take you anywhere"(emotionally.)

The theater for this "Love Actually" showing was packed -- fans from everywhere, I guess. Big laughs all the way through, huge applause at the end. And some quiet sniffling in all the right places.

But it was the theater itself that mattered: a great, big giant old Palace theater that had, in 1960(my newspaper research revealed) hosted Psycho for an entire summer into fall and where -- in various decades(80s, 90's...10s), I had seen Psycho MYSELF - the way it was meant to be seen: in a big giant old Palace theater -- with the soundtrack pumped into the restrooms (one time, I listened to Sheriff Chambers talking to Sam and Lila while I took a "break.")

This Palace Theater is a revival house now, but in 1970, it was a "Reserved Seat Showcase Theater" and there I saw Patton and Tora, Tora, Tora!

So those memories flooded in, as well.

And this. As I walked out of the theater into the street I remembered walking out of this same theater in August of 1969(having just seen "Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies") to see an afternoon edition of the local paper with headline: "Actress Sharon Tate and others murdered in Los Angeles." Yep, that's where I was the day after that event.

And also THIS: on this same street in the summer of 1969 -- at ANOTHER Palace Theater down the street that was now torn down -- I had seen The Wild Bunch for that first, exhilarating, life-changing time...and my father and I walked down the darkened street to our car after seeing THAT movie in a kind of dazed silence.

THIS night, departing the Love Actually theater and walking on that same street at night -- all around me -- homeless people. Sleeping on the street, on benches, in doorways. In the freezing cold. (I don't recall a single homeless person on that street when I saw The Wild Bunch in '69.)

Much has changed in the decades since I first saw movies at this Palace Theater. And note: I never saw Psycho there in 1960 -- I didn't live there and I was way too young then anyway. But I DID see Psycho there many times in later years and its a wonderful experience -- not a multiplex, in the biggest, oldest, most flamboyant theater I could find.

And the memories. Great movies(Psycho, The Wild Bunch....Love, Actually.) Good movies(Patton, Tora, Tora, Tora.) Not so good movies(Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies.)

I"ve seen 'em all. A nice part of a life.

Happy holidays.