Offscreen Notes
Marc Gervais: RIP, March 25, 2012
Marc Gervais, who was described in the linked The Gazette obit piece, as a “priest with a passion for film,” died on March 25, 2012, at the age of 82. As noted in The Gazette obit, Gervais became a Jesuit priest in 1963 and an academic in 1967. When one thinks of religion and cinema as professions, perhaps Scorsese comes to mind, as someone who had planned to become a priest but changed to cinema instead. In both professions, passion is a must, and it is something that Marc definitely had. I can attest because I was one of the many who took one of his famed cinema courses at the Loyola Campus, this going back to the early 1980s. I took two courses with him, one on the French New Wave, the other on Hollywood Genres. The double bill screenings were one night, the analysis/lecture the next. What I remember most was during the analysis nights, when he would freeze an image on the (now defunct) Athena Analyzer Projector (a 16mm projector which allowed you to stop, go back/forward one or more frames at a time), say a few words, stop, then gesticulate with his arms while repeating, “TSL, TSL” (short hand for texture, structure, language). At times I yearned for a more direct approach (“ok, TSL, but what does that shot mean!), but now I realize his approach was also to keep cinema, like a religion, somewhat of a mystery. I will remember him fondly (ed. Donato Totaro).
