The last of the Dinosaurs

I was invited to a business dinner last week. That happens once in a while, because being in the entertainment industry also means, doing business in an entertaining way.

It was a very nice evening; a film producer had invited fifty people all connected to cinema-exhibition to dine at his production facility. Before dining we all sang a song from a songbook made for the folkhighschools, a special Danish tradition. The guests got to choose the song and because the producer and his partners recently had sold a part of their company to a large Danish competitor, we chose a wedding hymn. Everyone was giggling the more the text referred to pure love.
But I absolutely understand why they sold part of their company, they handle directors who have worked with them for years and who are now at a point in their careers where they want to make films abroad with casts that include Hollywood stars. That has to be financed. So teaming up with this other company is very sensible. Maybe they also just wanted to secure their life’s work and get a little rich. All three arguments are perfectly okay with me :-).

In a not too far away future I will turn fifty, which brings about some thoughts I haven’t had before. Within the last three years I have taken some major life altering decisions. I have bought my own business (at least a part of it), and I have decided I will only work with projects or people that I like or love.
At the same time, I want to have a private life. So no more 16-hours-days, no more travelling for weeks in a row, no more coming home just to fix whatever couldn’t be fixed on the road, washing and packing just to leave again.
People ask me: “Don’t you miss it?” , but I don’t. I just want to stay at home, go to work every morning and go home at night. Hike in the forest on Sundays and when I feel like it (and they want to), hug my partner, my dog and my laundry machine. (The laundry machine doesn’t have a choice :-).
All of which I can do because they are right there in front of me, not thousands of kilometres and a flight trip away – it’s a choice. I don’t “sail” as fast as I used to and the “kicks” are not as intoxicating, but I can see the shore and I sleep better at night.

When the dinner was finished, the lawyers working for the production company, together with the producer (who were handling the drums) played jazz music. (Apparently they only hire lawyers that can play an instrument). Everybody was talking, laughing and being friendly with each other. It was like spending an evening with the family.

I don’t think there were more than five people in the whole party that I have known less than 10 years, many I have known all my working life. But recently some of these “constant-always-people” have begun to disappear. Some retire or sell their business, some get fired because the turn 60 or 65 and are replaced with younger people (by the way - I don’t like that “habit” :-), and some just die, which I also find unacceptable :-).
Suddenly I find myself in the forefront of this business, I am not the up-and-coming young talent, (if I ever was one :-) anymore. Gone are my heroes and mentors along with a couple of enemies… the last being a development I must admit I rather enjoy :-).

There are not many independent cinema owners left in Denmark. Like all over the world, the market is dominated by big players with hundreds, sometimes thousands of screens, so just having five, like I do, is rather unusual. We have become, like the last of the dinosaurs, a dying species and I have become the last link to history, I am not sure I am ready for that yet…….