Last night I watched the documentary Side by Side, which
explores the science and impact digital has had on cinema. Narrated by Keanu Reeves
the film boasts an impressive cast of directors and cinematographers, all of
whom give their independent opinion on whether or not digital is killing the
art of filming.
Personally I really enjoyed the documentary and it got me to
thinking about the importance of cinema in modern culture and if it’s possible
to answer the big question, is cinema dead?
As mentioned by one of the interviewees, in the past the
cinema was like a church, is was a space that allowed people to gather together and share
an experience. It was joy, enlightenment and escapism. However it was also
deemed as low culture aimed at the masses. Perceived by critics as having no substance or value, its only redeeming quality as far as they were concerned was that it allowed the lower classes to escape their mundane lives.
In Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World he critiques
cinema as part of a process that leaves people “blissfully ignorant”. Within his novel the aristocracy use the cinema to make the lower classes feel content with the
simplicity of their lives. This was reflecting what many philosophers and
sociologist felt at the time, especially considering the belief among many of them, that cinema would eventually kill true art forms like literature and paintings.
When the leading figures from French 'New Wave' cinema - André Bazin being the key individual - coined
the term ‘auteur’ to describe several American filmmakers including Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, the typical ideology and discourse surrounding cinema changed. People could see that films could be more than simple entertainment;
they could also educate, inform and influence. Essentially they became a respected form of art.
Films like Breathless and 500 Blows gained both huge critical and financial success, and from this point onwards the cinema became increasingly more
popular. When America had its own cinematic revolution, led by the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, it looked like there was only one way for cinema....up!
With the added help of the introduction of blockbuster films (Star
Wars and Jaws being at the forefront), it seemed there was nothing that could stop the rise of the cinema. The studios where making increasingly greater amounts of money and the filmmakers where making increasingly better films.
However the Internet was to completely change that……
(part 2 of this blog will be coming soon.)