Is auteur cinema dying?

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Precious Doll
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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anonymous1980 wrote:
Precious Doll wrote:I attend a lot of festivals throughout the year and most of the people at them at are over 50, ditto anything not a 'blockbuster release'.
That's not my experience. I attend a lot of film festivals over here as well and the audiences of arthouse/international films almost always have a broad age range with a lot of people my age or younger. Two festival screenings of Call Me By Your Name, I remember, were completely sold out and the audience were mostly under 40.
National film festivals like French, British, Italian, German, Spanish, Greek, Scandinavian, South American, Gay and Lesbian, Documentary, etc are all packed out with oldies. The exception are Korean & Japanese which do attract a younger audience which I put down to lots of young people from those countries living in Australia.

Of course the Sydney & Melbourne film festivals have a broader audience appeal but without the oldies they would have trouble to exist.

With all this talk of audiences today I went to see The Lion King at the 10.00am session of one of my local cinema complexes. I was the only person in the cinema and I only paid $1. So much for a film that in its first 5 days made over $500 million U.S. worldwide.
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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Precious Doll wrote:I attend a lot of festivals throughout the year and most of the people at them at are over 50, ditto anything not a 'blockbuster release'.
That's not my experience. I attend a lot of film festivals over here as well and the audiences of arthouse/international films almost always have a broad age range with a lot of people my age or younger. Two festival screenings of Call Me By Your Name, I remember, were completely sold out and the audience were mostly under 40.
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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Precious Doll wrote
Its just been reported that Avengers: Endgame has become the highest all-time grossing in the world knocking off auteur James Cameron's Avatar. This is purely in dollar terms and if adjusted to inflation it would be well down the list.
In related news, Comic-Con has quickly become the most important industry event of the year. Yesterday, Marvel announced their next four films but what really drew my attention was the TV Series they launched. New shows coming out include Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, Hawkeye, and What If? These shows directly feed into upcoming movies and star the actors in their big-screen roles.

You're certainly right about inflation but there's something else that you need to look at, and that is corporate competition. These may not be the biggest shows ever when it comes to network ratings but these are going to be the biggest shows of the year for years. Not only do we live in a world where all American cinema has to compete with Marvel Films but now all television has to compete with Marvel TV. Everything needs to be bigger. What's happening quickly is that film (as we used to cherish) now lives on TV while some of what we used to love about TV will move to the internet.
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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Big Magilla wrote: Older people, who were once the bread and butter patrons of smaller, critically acclaimed films, are not so much enamored of streaming as they are of not wanting the hassle of going to the movies these days. There are hardly any stand-alone theatres. Almost everything is assigned to a megaplex where they have to stand in line with all those waiting to get into one of the blockbusters. Old people do not like buying tickets on line, but if they don't do that, they are relegated to seats on the side even when the seats in the middle of the auditorium are left empty because they're given in block to the on-line sellers and can't be given to patrons by the theatre. If they move to the empty seats in the middle once the picture starts, they live in mortal fear of being asked to leave by the non-existent usher. Who needs that?
That would put me off going to the cinema - having a limit on where I could sit!

Thankfully, in Australia all the cinemas ask where you want to sit and you select your seat(s) at the box office. Only some film festivals have first in the cinema = best choice, though some use numbered seating. I've always preferred sitting towards the front on the side to basically avoid the noise from other patrons.

I think one of the things that has happened too is that older audiences are simply dying off and younger people (i.e. a lot of people under 50) aren't interested in anything much beyond blockbusters. I attend a lot of festivals throughout the year and most of the people at them at are over 50, ditto anything not a 'blockbuster release'. Probably the only exception in recent months has been Parasite which is attracting a very broad age range.

Economics has played a role too in that cinemas have lots of overheads costs compared to years ago, hence the multiple screen venues everywhere. From what I understand most cinemas make most of their money from the candy bars and booze they sell at inflated prices.

Back in the 1970s & 1980s (I no doubt the 1960s as well) new and old films by Bergman, Truffaut, Wertmuller, Rohmer, etc attracted lots of young people. Now with the exception of a few name directors that dws mentioned most auteurs mean virtually nothing except to people with an interest in cinema.
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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Precious Doll wrote:I think the only thing that may help auteur cinema to survive is quicker release dates. Popular and critically acclaimed films from the major festivals need to be released worldwide within a month or two to help capture the momentum they gain at Sundance, Cannes, Berlin and so on. Given too that the Oscars really have very little box office impact these days and are nothing more financially than a little icing on the cake.
Perhaps, but even if that were to happen don't expect people to go flocking to see them. The preponderance of the moviegoing public just wants to see blockbusters. The audience for smaller films is content to wait for 60 days for them to stream or be released on DVD.

Gone are the days when smaller films built up momentum with slow releases in major cities with extended playdates before they were released to waiting throngs across the country. There are no waiting throngs anymore. They're not even turning out for some of the blockbusters.

Older people, who were once the bread and butter patrons of smaller, critically acclaimed films, are not so much enamored of streaming as they are of not wanting the hassle of going to the movies these days. There are hardly any stand-alone theatres. Almost everything is assigned to a megaplex where they have to stand in line with all those waiting to get into one of the blockbusters. Old people do not like buying tickets on line, but if they don't do that, they are relegated to seats on the side even when the seats in the middle of the auditorium are left empty because they're given in block to the on-line sellers and can't be given to patrons by the theatre. If they move to the empty seats in the middle once the picture starts, they live in mortal fear of being asked to leave by the non-existent usher. Who needs that?
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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Interestingly Netflix's share price dropped 10% this past week as subscriptions in the US have stalled. However, subscriptions are rising internationally - but for how long?

Those budgets for Netflix products is staggering. Netflix have had some success with a couple of in-house films most recently Bird Box & Murder Mystery but had they been cinema releases they more than likely would have disappeared within a couple of weeks (though I can't help think Bird Box would have met with some degree of success). I think they have a deal with Adam Sandler which Murder Mystery would have been a part of.

Of course with studios starting their own streaming services, there are going to be losers and streaming services with no or little back catalogues are probably the most vulnerable. But all this home streaming is also having an effect on other parts of the economy. The number of restaurants closing down in a 10 mile radius is astonishing. There are of course a number of reasons for that but streaming is one of them as people more and more people have their meals delivered to them. Uber eats riders are everywhere!

Its just been reported that Avengers: Endgame has become the highest all-time grossing in the world knocking off auteur James Cameron's Avatar. This is purely in dollar terms and if adjusted to inflation it would be well down the list.

I think the only thing that may help auteur cinema to survive is quicker release dates. Popular and critically acclaimed films from the major festivals need to be released worldwide within a month or two to help capture the momentum they gain at Sundance, Cannes, Berlin and so on. Given too that the Oscars really have very little box office impact these days and are nothing more financially than a little icing on the cake. The downside is that this will destroy smaller film festivals all around the world but in a world now where instant gratification is so prevalent the industry must change to meet these demands or perhaps perish by death by a thousand cuts.
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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It's dying in some respects: The mainstream Hollywood "director's movie" seems to be dying, or evolving, in the age of Netflix. Looking back at a lot of "auteurist" Best Picture nominees over the past 20+ years, you have movies like L.A. Confidential, The Insider, Traffic, In the Bedroom, Gosford Park, The Pianist, Lost In Translation, Capote, etc., I see a lot of movies that would probably go to Netflix under current release patterns. (I left out Eastwood's films intentionally, because he's one of the few filmmakers who still has the pull to make pretty much whatever he wants.) The fact that long-established auteurs (Cuaron, Scorsese, Soderbergh, Coens) and up-and-coming directors (the Safdies, Dee Rees, David Michod, JC Chandor) are going to Netflix to get their films made shows that they know where they're most likely to be able to make the films they want. But maybe this isn't entirely a Netflix thing, maybe it's a change that's been coming for a long time: Even Steven Spielberg, in those early years after Dreamworks died (as a studio, that is), nearly sold Lincoln HBO.

But the Netflix thing is also an unsustainable bubble. Netflix may claim to be glad that they're losing The Office and Friends, because not having to pay the high licensing fees will free up more money for original projects, but they won't have that money if they lose a bunch of subscribers when those shows leave. And in the meantime, they're throwing out $100+ million budgets like crazy: Triple Frontier was $115 million, The Irishman is $140 million, Bright was around $100 million, Michael Bay has a $150 million project at Netflix. And then their TV shows are often produced at astronomical costs: The Crown has completed two seasons, with two more in various stages of post-production: the total four-season cost is north of $500 million. (If the budget remains the same for the two final seasons, they'll have spent around $780 million on it when all is said and done.) Baz Luhrmann's show was $120 million for it's one season. Sense8 was a $250 million gamble. In comparison, House of Cards was a bargain at around $60 million per season. They reportedly lost $200 million on Marco Polo. They gave Chris Rock $40 million for two comedy specials and Dave Chappelle $60 million for three.

Filmmakers are also embracing long-form storytelling: Damien Chazelle has two series in the works (I think on one he's just attached as a producer and directing some episodes, and the other one he's more hands-on); Tyler Perry just did the Twilight Zone reboot (with mixed results); Taylor Sheridan probably had a shot at doing whatever films he wanted, but went to TV and did a show where he wrote and directed the entire first season (I don't think he's directing the second season). And of course David Fincher, Paolo Sorrentino and Park Chan-Wook have all directed TV projects recently, and Joseph Cedar has an HBO project premiering in August, and Susanne Bier has one premiering next year.
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Re: Is auteur cinema dying?

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Precious Doll wrote
But with so many directors moving to television I beginning to wonder if maybe seeing films based on directors reputation will soon become a thing of the pass - only time will tell.
I'd like to say "It's going to exist but it's just going to change" but I certainly don't feel great about it right now.

But I don't think Andrea Arnold's experience suggests that auteurs are doomed. I've read the controversy surrounding the second season of Big Little Lies as well. How often do we hear about major auteurs coming onto a second season of a show to change it up? To me, this just sounds like a corporate fuck-up. What looks good on paper looks bad in execution. There is a lot of this going around. Hence, Cats.
Last edited by Sabin on Sat Jul 20, 2019 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Is auteur cinema dying?

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This morning when I did my rounds of various sites on the internet that I do on a daily basis I noticed on one site that Luca Guadagnino has signed on to direct a TV mini-series We Are Who We Are for HBO.

Nothing new about film directors (and actors, screenwriters and numerous behind the scenes craftspeople) transitioning to TV but for some reason this announcement really may me feel cinema as we know it feels like its on its way out.

Coincidentally, The Guardian published an opinion piece on some controversy surrounding the second series of Big Little Lies that also touches on the decline in 'auteur cinema'. Its an interesting read but one needs to keep in mind that a lot of it is speculation because nobody involved with its production has actually made an comment. Of course there is nothing unusual about a studio/producer taking over a 'product' be it a cinema feature or a TV production and having a good old tinker with it. However, it always makes for a 'what if' viewing experience.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/j ... are-doomed

Ultimately I feel cinema as I know and love is dying. I do watch some TV series and the first series of Big Little Lies was one of my 'chosen few' so to speak and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Must admit I was looking forward to the second series but now I'm not so sure, though I will make a final decision on what emerges in coming weeks/months.

But with so many directors moving to television I beginning to wonder if maybe seeing films based on directors reputation will soon become a thing of the pass - only time will tell.
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