Cinema Connoisseur

Robert Emilio Cargni, the artist formerly known as Robert Cameron Mitchell, had a love for film and all things cinematic that can be traced to his early days. Our first exposure to storytelling on film -- arriving in our home by way of television -- was through cartoons. 

In the early 60s, we would huddle in front of the new color television console in the family "party room" to watch animated series like Popeye the Sailor Man, Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Flintstones, Mister Magoo, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, and The Bugs Bunny Hour.

Our favorite: Warner Brothers cartoons with Bugs, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, and Pepe LePew, who became some of the most recognizable characters in the world. On Sunday evenings, we religiously gathered for "The Wonderful World of Disney."

The Warner Brothers cartoons featured a more visual and sophisticated style of humor that we preferred, although they also included some slapstick comedy along with jokes and dialogue. ("Eh, you wouldn't be so tough if you weren't wearing that uniform." — Bugs Bunny)

We also watched a variety of live action television shows, including westerns (The Lone Ranger, The Rifleman, Zorro, Bonanza) science fiction (The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Outer Limits, Star Trek) and action-adventure (Sea Hunt, Sky King, Lassie, Mission: Impossible).

But these shows were merely apertivos. Because our mother loved going to the theater to see first-run films, and our father didn't, she would take us along to catch the latest Hollywood offerings at Portland movie houses like the Orpheum, the Hollywood, the Oriental and the Baghdad theaters.

The movies were always first rate: Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Guns of Navarone, How the West Was Won, The Secret of Santa Vittorio, The Magnificent Seven, Breakfast at Tiffany's, A Man for All Seasons, and The Longest Day are examples of films we saw with our mother.

In the summers, the Academy Theatre in Montavilla, just a few blocks from our home on Mt. Tabor, was a frequent hangout, where we would watch something different every week, whether it was a corny sci-fi flick like Frankenstein Vs. The Space Monster or a soapy drama like To Sir With Love.

By the late 60s, we had our driver's licenses so we struck out on our own with movies like The Graduate, M*A*S*H, Kelly's Heroes, Wild In The Streets and other films. In the waning years of that phenomenon known as "drive-in" movies, we could be found at an all-night James Bond festival.

In the 70s, our paths diverged, much like Louis and Lucien in The Corsican Brothers. I left Portland for a summer job at Crater Lake and then the University of Oregon to study journalism, and Robert attended Portland State University to pursue a degree in cinema studies.

To fund his education, Robert was hired by Solomon (Sol) Maizels, who owned the Aladdin Theatre and several other venues, as general manager and projectionist. Originally a vaudeville house, the Aladdin achieved a degree of notoriety in the 70s for its emphasis on pornographic cinema.

But Robert had absolutely zero interest in porn. Instead, he immersed himself into the intricacies of life as a film projectionist and all aspects of the history and technology of cinema, and he became quite an expert in "the booth" at the Aladdin, Oregon and Walnut Park theaters.

Because of the tarnished reputations of the theaters, my friend Kelly Tjaden jokingly christened Robert "The Porn King" and the title caught on briefly. But Robert dove into foreign film and was particularly enamored with Federico Fellini, the Italian filmmaker known for his distinctive style.

Recognized as one the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, Fellini's most famous films include La Strada, 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, Nights of Cabriria, Juliet of the Spirits, and Satyricon. He has been nominated for 16 Academy Awards over the course of his career.

Robert was also a big fan of the works of the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Scenes from a Marriage, Fanny and Alexander, Wild Strawberries), and German filmmaker Wim Wenders (Nosferatu, Paris, Texas, Kings of the Road, The American Friend).

In the mid-80s, Robert moved to Philadelphia and was hired by a nonprofit film theater that focused on artistically significant and socially relevant motion pictures from at home and abroad. He was a universally acknowledged expert in both domestic and international filmmaking.

While we both had fond memories of the cartoons we watched as kids, those days were gone until the 80s when a fellow classmate of ours at Lincoln High School, Matt Groening, created The Simpsons. We became avid fans of the irreverent animated sitcom, and the denizens of Springfield.

And although we both loved Marvel and DC comics in our youth, Robert didn't have any interest in the big budget films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He did, however, enjoy the popular films of the era, including Ghostbusters and The Big Lebowski, quoting from them frequently.

From Ghostbusters, his favorite lines were "there is no Dana, only Zulu" and "why am I drippings with goo?." From The Big Lebowski, there were too many to count, but he often cited: "Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man," and "that rug really tied the room together."