The Archive (2009)
Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection. - A brief look at the world's largest vinyl record collection and the current state of the American record industry.
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an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
The Archive is a seven minute film about a man who has the world's largest record collection. I enjoyed it, having been a vinyl collector, but didn't feel like it did much except serve as an advertisement. The owner of the collection had a store which went out of business, so he has no place to store his collection. On top of that, he is going blind and getting old, so he can't really continue to add to or maintain the collection. We're told it's probably worth something like $50 million, and that he has tried to sell it for as little as $3 mil. However, he wants the person who buys it to protect and preserve the collection for future generations. So we don't really learn much about the man, the music, how it was collected (he shopped around on business trips and made trades--that's all we're told) or anything, except the collection is for sale. I think if he is expecting some kind of payoff for all the years of work he put into this collection, he should consider that the enjoyment he felt pursuing his hobby is going to have to be it. Donate the records to the Smithsonian or some similar institute and stop complaining that "no one cares" just because there isn't a music lover with an empty storehouse and millions of dollars lying around.