Car parked in front of the giant screen, popcorn in hand and radio connected to the FM signal which broadcasts the sound of the film: you are indeed at the drive-in, symbol of American pop culture, which had its peak in the years 1950-1960. At the time, there were thousands of them, but the massive arrival of television and the rise in land prices announced their decline. Most have gone bankrupt, there are only 305 left across the country today. The documentary Under the stars, available on the TCM channel from October 15, tells the story of these surviving drive-ins: these giant scrap metal screens planted in large American spaces, which unite communities and sell nostalgia.
It’s a classic documentary, built like a report, to meet the owners of open-air cinemas across American territory. “It was very strong encounters with people”, director Mathieu Phang explained to us. His film portrays six drive-ins, from Massachusetts to Colorado to Tennessee. It offers us a diversity of landscapes and a real aesthetic with drive-ins in the middle of the forest or in the heart of snow-capped mountains. A road trip, meeting touching characters, driven by the same passion for outdoor cinema. There are those who have struggled to keep their old drive-ins and those who have recently invested in building one. Everyone is very proud to be able to continue this place which symbolizes the great era of the United States.
Drive-ins have benefited from renewed interest during the health crisis and the closure of cinemas, but they are also benefiting from a recent fashion for vintage, according to Mathieu Pheng. “The drive-in directly refers to American culture and its peak, it sells dreams, nostalgia”, says the director. The drive-in, a very American phenomenon which has never really been exported. “Americans love their car, they love showing it off and they love the movies, so this is a perfect combo for them“, he jokes.
Under the stars allows us to grasp the symbolic and emotional charge of drive-ins, what they represent for those who go there. “We, what we sell is nostalgia, it’s our best product”, launches the very touching Pamela, manager of the Star Drive-in for 52 years. It’s what keeps generations of families going to the same drive-in for years. Kinds of mini communities are thus created around these places imbued with memories. “Some define part of their identity in relation to at the drive-in”, says Mathieu Phang.
Drive-ins have suffered many blows, the latest being the transition from film to digital. And in these moments, the community mobilizes, it contributes, sends letters to the mayor. This is one of the strong messages of the documentary: the will of these people who fight for what is dear to them, even if these places are old and unprofitable. Finally, there are also these new drive-ins, the one with a giant LED screen or another that builds mini hotels there. Their story, less powerful than the old-fashioned drive-ins, nevertheless shows another way. Perhaps that of the future of drive-ins?
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Gender : Documentary
Director : Mathieu Pheng
Country : France
Duration : 52 minutes
Exit : October 15, 2022
Distributer : TCM Cinema
Synopsis : Mythical practice in the US the drive-in had a golden age until the 1970s before collapsing. He is now enjoying a second life in the United States. It was initiated by a handful of die-hard cinema lovers, driven by a certain idea of freedom, in the open air. Real characters straight out of a Coen brothers movie or a Tarantino. From the Star Drive-in Theater in Colorado, the oldest drive-in in operation, or the LoCo Drive-in in Tennessee where we can even see movies in broad daylight while passing through the Comanche in Colorado at the foot of the snow-capped mountains; this film is a crossing of the United States to discover one of the most important parts of pop culture and Americana. A road-doc under the stars and in front of the canvases bathed in the light of the most entertaining films in cinema…