Film I spent the afternoon flicking my way through a decade or sos worth of back issues of Empire Magazine for dissertation reasons. The effect was something akin to watching my life flashing before my eyes, as years of filmgoing were crammed into four hours. I'd know what I was doing or what was happening in the world when certain issues had been published because (as well as the date on the cover) they were reviewing films I'd seen at the time. Groundhog Day? 1993, last day of secondary school. The Fugitive? Same year, first week of undergraduate university. Late Night Shopping? Working in Manchester first time around. Moulin Rouge? September 11th. Managed to make parallel list of wide release films I've somehow managed to miss, as well as forgotten classics with four and five star reviews.
It was interesting simply to watch the magazine's editorial policy ebb and flow and change with the times, from extraordinarily cineaste in the late eighties/early nineties to something far more relaxed as the decade went on back to the earlier policies in later years. For a time, editorial content made way for photography, even in the review section, large impressive photos supporting just a few paragraphs of copy, probably because the same company was publishing something called Neon which catered for the older audience and Total Film was nipping at their toes.
This month they're celebrating twenty-five years of Indiana Jones with a selection of special covers, which is a shame because I was looking forward to seeing Clerks II taking up the space below the title, possibly with Jay giving the readership the finger. But these are very special, reproducing some of the relevant Imdy movie posters. I might go and rewatch the trilogy when my dissertation is done to celebrate...
No comments:
Post a Comment