The World of Leonardo Morgado

I’ve seen The Wizard of Oz innumerable times. It was a staple visual feast every Christmas when I was young and now I’ve got a copy of it on DVD I still watch it and never tire of watching it.  However, I’ve never seen it on a cinema screen so when I discovered that The Electric was going to be screening it using their new HD projector I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t afford to miss.

Screen 2 which is upstairs at The Electric has a small auditorium that feels like a throwback to a much more communal and homely past and an ideal setting to watch a film about community and belonging. The cinema is reported to be the oldest working one in the UK and every smell, every part of its architecture refers back to the days before multiplexes, overpriced popcorn and mindless summer blockbusters.

I sat down in my seat with my beer (yes you can buy ethanol) and began to get rather excited as I looked around the cinema at the forty or so people who had also decided to come. A mixed aged bunch who are comprised of students and those cinephile types that seem to be the constituency of The Electric. A pity as I would like the cinema to have a broad spectrum of users but I suppose the multiplexes have won that particular bout.

Once the film began I had an unexplainable warm feeling throughout my entire being. From the opening credits in beautiful sepia tones to the final scenes I was absolutely enthralled. It is a great film on any size screen but seeing it projected in a cinema with its digitally cleaned up sound and visuals was how it was meant be seen. The songs, the sets, the sheer exuberance and vivacity of all the cast strengthens its position as one of the truly great films ever to be made.

The shot where Dorothy (played by Judy Garland) steps out of her sepia world into the colourful world of Oz packs such a cinematic punch that seeing it again on a television screen will never have the same impact. Excuse me for getting carried away but although the film is sixty years old it’s so full of heart, soul and genuine sense of cinema that it demonstrates how truly lifeless our CGI age has become.

If anybody hasn’t seen the film yet on a cinema screen then please do so. If you are not captivated by it then perhaps you need to tap on your chest just to make sure that it’s not hollow.