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Back in those days, before cable television, home video, and obviously streaming, movies would spend months and sometimes even years in theaters. The movies me
by slg 6y ago
Back in those days, before cable television, home video, and obviously streaming, movies would spend months and sometimes even years in theaters. The movies mentioned in the opening span multiple years. I guarantee one could put together a similar list of (soon to be) classics from 2017-2020 that rivals those movies from 1957-1960. Sure, it is less prestigious stuff like superhero movies that break box office records and not these classics, but that was also true at the time too. And maybe you can't see all these classics in a theater at the same time like this hypothetical New Yorker from 1959, but that is because there are so many more distribution channels today competing for "content". These new channels make these movies much more accessible to a much larger audience today than was ever possible in the past. I think this whole debate is overblown.
- cageface 6y agoI guarantee one could put together a similar list of (soon to be) classics from 2017-2020 that rivals those movies from 1957-1960. I'd be interested to see your list.
- slg 6y agoMy taste is less arthousey so I’m not the one to make the list of modern parallels for these movies. But since you asked, here is my personal list after looking at my Letterboxd (in no particular order) Parasite, Little Women, Into the Spiderverse, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, Knives Out, Annihilation, and Get Out. Almost all of those movies involve some type of unconventional approach or risk by the filmmakers. For example even something as basic as the adaption of a century and a half old book is handled in a new and innovative way unlike the countless earlier adaptations. Heck even the freaking Spider-Man movie was playing with the form in ways that no other movie has ever done before. The artistry, the evolution, and everything else is still there if you look for it.
- cageface 6y agoThose are good films I agree but to me they do not have the same sense of excitement and discovery I get from the best of the 60s and 70s.
- hardwaregeek 6y agoI'm not so sure you can find as many groundbreaking, experimental movies at the forefront of film in 2017-2020. Movies like La Notte or Hiroshima Mon Amour or Winter Light just wouldn't get distribution these days. Don't get me wrong—I agree that there's plenty of wonderful films made in the last three years. But in the 60's and 70's film was willing to be as risky and innovative and beautiful as the finest novels. I'm not sure that's true today