First Choice Video Club

I lived for so long without either a a) television, and then b) a VCR or DVD player that I simply just wasn't connected to the world that evolved around either. I saw movies at the local rep cinema, the Paradise in my case, and also at the different theatres around town that show movies I seem to like - the Cumberland, the Carleton, the Cinematheque, and the Goethe Institute to name a few. I like the movie theatre experience. I don't always eat popcorn, but sometimes; and then other times, I bring my own treats from the Strictly Bulk place around the corner (a guilty indulgence are hard cheesies, wine gums or sesame sticks), or I'll pack an apple or a piece of banana bread from home and shove a large bottle of water in my backpack. I enjoy watching movies by myself. Probably more than seeing them in the company of someone else. I like that it's my experience, unfiltered by someone else's interest or disinterest, views or biases. Sometimes it's frustrating not having someone to banter with about the movie afterwards but at the same time I'm left in the glow of whatever emotion rung true for me unfettered.

The Cinematheque is having a retrospective this month of one of my favourite filmmakers: Chance Encounters: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieślowski. He's a beautiful director, full of silence, and grace, quiet dialogue, stunning cinematogrphy, poetic moments about life. I lived in Poland for a while and I had that childlike desire to randomly bump into him, hoping that he'd star me in his next movie about a young woman, new to Krakow, living in her monastic room above a blooming courtyard, listening to the Italians make loud love all night, smoking in the courtyard at dawn with the pigeons each morning, sticking fallen leaves and twigs from the Jewish cemeteries into her journal, living a life that felt so unilluminated that it strove to be told so as to become real/large/something. His movies are often scored by the industrious and darkly seductive composer, Zbegniew Preisner. His music will make you either want to weep or go insane. And by insane I mean twirl around in a balletic dance with a broomstick yearning to fall out of the 3rd story window and land in a scene of despair and passion.

Anyway, back to the movies and televisions, I lucked into a perfect working order television that had been dumped outside my building with a converter. It's a large black t.v. and I don't get cable but I get lots from the rabbit ears. I then lucked into a VCR found in my parent's basement and a DVD player from a friend who had one too many. I hunted around for a video store that struck a chord with me. I had frequented the old Suspect Video on Markham Street for years when I house sat for friends and loved their eclectic amalgamation of movies you could flip through by cardboard movie casings. I tried Queen Video on Bloor Street and found their selection okay but the environment oddly competitive in a Queen Street black framed eye glasses polyester shirt I don't give a shit sort of way. It unnerved me. Then I happened across First Choice Video Club just east of the corner of Bloor and Ossington. I struck gold.

FCVC is run by a Greek man named Frank and his daughter. He's owned the store for over 25 years. He has a collection of movies (both VHS and DVD) that could counter any cineophile. He has Kieślowski's Decalogue plus all of his films. He organizes everything that is quite old by genre and movie star or director (i.e. Hitchock, Dunawaye, early Musicals, black and white horrors). He also gets new movies in weekly that he rotates around the store (he favours documentaries and foreign films but carries almost all of the big new releases and hot television series). I have never gone in there and asked for a movie that he wasn't able to pull from a stack of organized cassettes lined up against a wall. Everything is done by paperwork. You follow a code of honour when you rent from Frank. And after you meet him, I doubt you'll ever consider breaking it.

Movies stores, like independent book stores, aren't easy to manage these days. If you live in the area, I encourage you to drop in and stay a while.

Comments

[Keith Demko]

I'm jealous ... My little corner of the world is lacking in many things, but a great video store would have to top the list ... I too like going to the movies by myself .. maybe it's a sickness