The State of Cinema

The Oscar nominations are out, and the consensus is that the Academy chose to honour the smaller, independent films with political and social messages. It's one of Hollywood's running retorts to the cycle of fear perpetuated by the Bush Administration.

A few weeks ago I attended an NFT screening of Breakfast on Pluto, followed by a Q&A session with the film's director, Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire), and lead actor, Cillian Murphy (Red Eye, 28 Days Later). An audience-member asked why so many new films, including Breakfast on Pluto, might be viewed as a reflection of the war in Iraq, or shenanigans in the White House. In Jordan's view, there is definitely a movement that is trying to present an alternate view. He compares the phenomena to what happened in 1980s Britain, under Thatcher's rule. So many films released during that period, and Jordan counts his own among them, are a retort to Thatcherism, be that a conscious directorial decision, or the critics' subsequent reading of the film's themes. Cinema became a voice for the marginalised and repressed. This issue of alternate voices is also addressed in an MSNBC interview, published a few days ago, with this year's five Oscar nominated directors. It's an entertaining read, peppered with George Clooney's banter, but also very perceptive about the state of cinema.

I love popcorn cinema, and by that I mean the high-conceptaction/adventure/thrillers, as much as the next person... But provided they are well-made, which is so rarely the case these days. I'm tired of wasting two hours watching mediocre efforts. How many times have you left the cinema thinking "yeah, it was okay", but you struggle to remember the big set-pieces or any salient plot point. The whole process has been distilled to a business process that attempts to combine pre-packaged inputs into a sale-able product. (Catwoman, anyone?) What's really depressing is how much money is wasted on some of these films, an average of US$64 million per picture (half of which is advertising). So instead of smaller/riskier/personal projects, the studios gamble more money on the bigger flicks, in the hope of scoring a Titanic or Spiderman, and praying they don't get stuck with Speed 2: Cruise Control or Daredevil. More risk requires more control, and the cycle goes on and on.

On Wikipedia you can find a notional list of films coming out this year.

We're going to see these sequels:
- Bambi II
- Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction - yay, Sharon! Check out the poster. Here's hoping it's good.
- Bean 2
- Big Momma's House 2
- Bring It On Yet Again
- Casino Royale, which has started shooting without a villain or Bond girl!
- Clerks II, at least we know this will take the piss out of the whole sequel thing
- Die Hard 4.0
- Dr Doolittle 3
- Final Destination 3
- Garfield 2, but did anyone see the first film?
- The Grudge 2, a sequel, and a remake of the Japanese film
- Ice Age 2
- Ju-On: The Grudge 3, another instalment in the Japanese series
- Mission: Impossible III
- Mortal Kombat: Devastation, ooh, a sequel based on a computer game
- Mrs Doubtfire 2
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- The Punisher 2
- Rush Hour 3
- Santa Clause 3
- Saw III
- Scary Movie 4
- Sin City 2
- Superman Returns, canonically following Superman II
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, a sequel to a remake
- Underworld: Evolution
- X-Men 3

And these remakes:
- Black Christmas
- Charlotte's Web
- The Hills Have Eyes
- Miami Vice
- Night of the Living Dead 3D
- The Omen 666, which opens on 6/6/06. At least the trailer looks great!
- Piranha
- The Pink Panther
- Poseidon, yes Kevin, get excited 'cause it's the all-new Poseidon Adventure!
- Rambo IV, why?
- The Sentinel
- Sisters
- The Thirty-Nine Steps
- The Topkapi Affair, a remake of 1964's Topkapi, being made as a sequel to Pierce Brosnan's 1999 The Thomas Crown Affair, which itself was a remake!
- When A Stranger Calls

This is the state of cinema. All these products competing for our £11.50 (yes, it costs that much to see a first-run flick in central London). Notice how many horror films are coming out, be they sequels, remakes, or original stories? In my opinion, this isn't a continuation of the post-modern horror films of the late 90s, that started with Scream. When you think about it, that mostly died out years ago. In my opinion, this has more to do with the war in Iraq, and the fear associated with terrorism... just as the 1970s American slasher films evolved from, and in response to, the horror of Vietnam.

On a slightly cheerier note, there are also some original films to keep an eye out for this year:
- Scoop, WoodyAllen's second London-set film
- Slither, a deliciously gross horror film
- V for Vendetta, London-set terror-themed adaptation of a graphic novel
- Children of Men , thriller set in a dystopic future London, based on the PD James novel
- two films based on the Zodiac Killer story, and I know that Marg will see both
- Firewall, a generic Harrison Ford thriller which admittedly might be terrible
- The DaVinci Code
- Colour Me Kubrick, with John Malkovich playing the con artist who impersonated Stanely Kubrick in early 90s London, based on a true story
- The Black Dahlia, from my fave director, Brian De Palma, which is hopefully more Carlito's Way than Mission to Mars.

The flip-side to the high-concept machine of Hollywood cinema is the government subsidised industry we have in Australia, and that other state of cinema, Queensland. The Courier-Mail published a great interview last week with the sunshine state's new film production czar, Henry Tefay. The PFTC, where Tefay works, is responsible for distributing funds to Queensland film-makers to get their projects of the ground. After years of subsidising foreign productions, while shelling out money to a handful of Queensland film-makers whose same names pop up on the list every year, it sounds like the PFTC might finally start encouraging production of local films that audiences want to see. Ultimately, if audiences want to pay to watch high-concept films, even if it is shite like Catwoman, then that's where the market is, and where the jobs are. Thankfully, I think we have a long way to go before Catwoman becomes the milestone of good high-concept cinema!