Art . Matters

After the Second World War, from the age of seven until eighteen, my mother lived in a state run orphanage in Pula (Yugoslavia then, now Croatia). Some of the children lived there because their parents could not afford to look after them. My mother lost both her parents so for her it was an orphanage in the truest sense.

Saturday afternoons were here favourite time of the week. It was the day the children were allowed to go on outings. Usually she would go to the local cinema where, for the price of a single ticket, she could stay all day and watch as the movie played in a continuous loop.

She listened to the English spoken in the American classics that she saw. She fell in love with the actors. And, for those brief hours she was there, she was transported to another world.

This time instilled in her a love of the movies, particularly the American classics that she saw; Westerns with John Wayne, ‘The Road’ movies wth Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Slapstick shenanigans with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Romance and Drama with Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, Musicals with Doris Day and so many more.

They provided an escape for her. 

When my mum migrated to Australia she was shocked that the English spoken sounded nothing like the movies she knew! It was a revelation to her that English could be spoken in different ways.

Growing up, one of my treasured times with her was watching ‘Ivan’s Midday Movie’. She seemed to know all the movies we saw and had a wealth of knowledge about the actors and their lives (She was definitely a ‘follower’ well before Instagram and Twitter!).

Only recently I found myself sharing a favourite John Wayne Western of my mum’s with my children. There was something magical in being able to share a movie that my mother loved with the grandchildren that never met her.

To me it underlines that Art is crucial, in whatever form it is.

I think that Art Matters. A lot.

So, to the writers, the screenplay writers, the directors, the actors, the composers, the costume designers, the make-up artists, the studios; THANK YOU. Thank you to all who contributed to the magic of ‘The Movie’. 

Thank you to all those who dreamed, who created, who ‘birthed’ something into being that gave my mother a world of escape from a life and country broken by war. 

Thank you for giving me a connection with my mum.