Missing Reels by Farran Smith Nehme

Author:Farran Smith Nehme [SMITH NEHME, FARRAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000; FIC044000
ISBN: 9781468310788
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2014-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

3.

“T HEY ’VE FOUND FILMS IN ALL KINDS OF PLACES. B ROOM CLOSETS. Under porches. That guy in Vermont really did have everything in his tool shed. His wife decided on a big spring cleaning and the guy at the Brody got a tip that there was this collection and she was going to toss it all out, and he went up there and got all this stuff. And sometimes the prints would hit the end of the release period and the theaters never bothered—”

“May I interrupt?” Matthew had his burger in one hand; he’d been taking a bite whenever he gave up temporarily on trying to break in.

“Wait, this is important—they never bothered to return them to the studio. That’s how Kevin Brownlow found part of Napoleon, see. Czechoslovakia was the end of the line in Europe, and—”

Matthew put a finger to her lips. “I didn’t realize Fred was so fascinating. But—what’s that grin about?”

“You’ve been very patient, that’s all. Go on.”

“I’ve been trying to figure out why you wanted to spend—an hour and a half, was it?”

“An hour. He had to get back to the lab.”

“Pity. An hour, then, talking about film stock and where the Brody finds its films, when all you ever talked about before was watching films. And I have it now. You’re planning to look for this one.” She looked down and realized she’d only eaten about three bites. Admittedly, at Cozy Soup ’n’ Burger the things were as big as her head, but she had to do better than that or she’d never hear the end of it. “Aha. We’re not denying it. We’re engaging in diversionary eating.” She shrugged and continued to chew. “You think you’re going to find this film. Finish that, I’ll wait.”

At length, she said, “Maybe nobody ever looked for it before.”

“Maybe nobody else lives in your fantasy world.”

“I tend to assume that anyway.”

“Nice idea. Belongs in a movie. Like all your ideas. But you won’t find it. What you will find is the curse of dimensionality.”

“You know very well I don’t know what that is.” She took another bite.

“You will. When you head-butt it so hard you break that cute little nose you’re so proud of.” He handed her a napkin, and she wiped the lipstick off her chin.

“All right, professor,” she sighed. “You’re dying to tell me, so by all means, explain the curse of dimensionality.”

“In layman’s terms—”

“Oh goody. I don’t have a pencil, though.”

“In layman’s terms, and no talking out of turn please, it means that as a high number of dimensions, or here we can say variables, are added to a problem, there is an exponential increase in volume. The problem becomes unimaginably vast. In this case, for all intents and purposes, it becomes impossible.”

She took another bite and pondered. She had him. “You’re wrong.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. There aren’t that many variables,” she said. “There was a finite number of prints. And not that high a number, because it didn’t get a big release.

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