A Response to Blood & Sandals: The Other Italian Cinema by Pia Santaklaus

Hey Brett,

Thanks for an interesting presentation today, THE OTHER ITALIAN CINEMA.

Barrie Pattison brought in and presented a fine, diverse selection of films. I enjoyed the short ‘art’ film ‘The Geometry Lesson’ (early 50s?) of which little is known. In arty black and white, just looking at some of the fantastic shapes formed by manipulating 3 coordinates (x, y, z), I couldn’t help but imagine Salvador Dali had seen this exact film back then and it may have inspired some of the fantastic shapes in his own paintings of that period. Dali was a mad keen enthusiast of mathematics and physics.

I appreciate the selfless gusto and passion with which Barrie presents his stuff. Always interesting, he deserves a much larger audience. It’s pitiful how little nostalgia and care exists for so many old films. Such difficult-to-preserve disappearing treasures become victims of eternity; one wave follows the next and too much gets swept away in the tides of time.

Long live Cinemateque!

To me, Barrie’s like the proverbial old soldier who never dies even when he knows he’s defending a losing war.At least with presentations such as today, he wins battles along the way. Barrie Pattison champions the neglected, guards the overlooked and might be seen as a saint of the forgotten...his dedication and energy is admirable.

And again, thanks Brett for working well under pressure today. I imagine you had a very difficult job to do and with only a little preparation; it turned out well.

Pia