Arnon Grunberg

Returns

Marginal

On the movies – Richard Brody in The New Yorker:

‘Of course, historically, many great movies have failed at the box office and many bad ones have been hits. But, in the pre-pandemic era (and, even more, in the pre-streaming era), a film’s artistic value wasn’t necessarily at odds with its commercial appeal. That has changed. Since movie theatres opened again, after the first pandemic shutdowns, box-office returns from new films by notable directors have been a fraction of their earlier films’ results. Brooks Barnes, in the Times, cites poor box-office numbers on critical hits such as “Tár,” “The Fabelmans,” “Armageddon Time,” and “She Said.” In the case of international films, such as “Both Sides of the Blade” and “The Eternal Daughter,” business has been still worse compared with pre-pandemic numbers, even with the same directors (Claire Denis and Joanna Hogg, respectively) and actors (Juliette Binoche and Tilda Swinton). Low-budget independent films have almost always been commercially marginal, as have a majority of the most original international films. But now the same is true of the majority of the most significant Hollywood and Hollywood-proximate movies.’

(…)

‘The danger of the current moment is a second hollowing: the relegation of even lower-budget productions to commercial oblivion, the ever-widening gap between the spectacular successes and the quiet failures. In a way, the industry has done itself in, aesthetically. What distinguishes feature films from serial television is the primacy of the director; in television, the showrunner is, in effect, the head writer, and directors are mostly hired hands, facing the constraints of the serial jigsaw puzzle. (Mike White’s writing and directing of every episode of “The White Lotus” is an exception.) Yet many of the independently produced films that succeed, such as “CODA” and “Belfast,” are largely works of writing and performance, realized with direction that’s merely functional, that transparently puts the story and the characters onscreen with little to express a personal point of view in the dramatic concept or the moment-to-moment image-making. The success of directorial neutrality leads straight to television—and that’s how “CODA,” released on Apple TV+, was mostly seen. (It had a nominal theatrical release.) Perhaps the movie’s Oscar for Best Picture is a result of the still dismal state of theatrical release amid the pandemic, a hangover from protracted at-home viewing. But the previous two Best Picture winners, “Nomadland” and “Parasite,” whatever the specifics of their artistic achievements, are very much the work of directors (Chloé Zhao and Bong Joon-ho, respectively) who conceive their movies comprehensively, whose methods are inseparable from the results; they are auteur movies.’

(…)

‘The greatest danger that the industry faces is one that’s largely under the radar: the difficulty faced by as yet unrecognized, ultra-low-budget, grassroots, independent filmmakers to gain recognition for their work and to make their way into the industry. That’s where critics—and their values—come in. Reviews can be like Oscars for D.I.Y. filmmakers; critical attention is the form of recognition that gets their work acknowledged by more established filmmakers, producers, and distributors. But the commercial dominance of franchise films gets in the way of that recognition—and critics themselves, and their editors, are partially responsible. As few good movies appear likely to become breakout hits, critics end up facing an abyss that separates the art from the money.’

(…)

‘But the future of the art will increasingly be found at lower economic altitudes. That is where the overwhelming bulk of critical attention will have to head—that is, if critics are going to reflect the creative progress of the cinema, and not condemn themselves to impotent echoes of its business plans.’

Read the essay here.

The reviewer reviews his own relevance, and yes there is a problem.

The directors, the artists, the authors, the publishing houses, they all want an echo of the business plan, whether it’s called business plan or not.

Hence the stars. Four or five or three. Thumbs up or down No analysis, no ambiguity, no language. Just the signs. And the commercial periphery where many of us try to make a living.

In Europe they tried to get ahead of this problem with subsidy.

But I say, it’s time for the comeback of the old-fashioned patron, including maybe transgressive behavior. Civilized of course. Extremely civilized.

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