Video Finds

The number of video clips available free on the net is heading further towards infinity even as you read this sentence. Nobody can edit the infinite, but perhaps someone who has spent half a century as a critic of the arts can provide useful pathways through the tumult to some of the things that have thrilled him. When I was very young, I saw the MGM musical The Band Wagon an extra three times in one week, just to catch the jazz ballet at the end. It was called “The Girl Hunt” and I thought it wonderful beyond belief. I went on thinking that, even through the decades when I couldn’t see it again, because the movie wasn’t on release, and nobody had yet invented the video cassette, let alone the DVD or the world-wide web. Now I can check up, and what do you know, I was right; “The Girl Hunt” is still wonderful beyond belief, and certainly beyond any words that might try to describe it. And right there, I eventually realised, was my way into the treasure chamber. My criterion in this selection from all the available material, in all the artistic fields, is to pick out the things that strike a lifelong critic as immune to critical belittlement. With that said, however, there is still always more to say. My apologies in advance for trying to get in on the act, but I couldn’t resist writing an introductory paragraph to each clip. In this way, and in this way only, the old stager can finally hope to come in useful, by saying: You’re right: but what you’re seeing is not only good, it’s built to last.