A decade of fear and short-term patches

As absurd as it may sound this ‘bug-fiction’ suggests how little has seemingly changed in the film environment over the last ten years. The same figures keep filling our imaginations. However the appearance is highly deceptive: 2010 actually ends a decade of profound and ever increasingly fast moves, when Hollywood –and other film production centers for that matter- have been living with one constant big fear: following a similar fate as the music industry. For filmmakers indeed performing live on stage doesn’t look like a bright alternative perspective… From the disaffection to the revival of cinema theaters attendance, passing by the DVD market miracle in the mid-2000’s followed by its quick collapse, from the ‘democratization’ of piracy to the threats menacing the traditional film funding system in Europe (the massive public budget cuts decided this year in UK, Netherlands, Bulgaria, or Hungary for instance), film industries have learnt to cope with a state of constant crisis long before the financial one actually hit the planet in fall 2008. Still, more or less short-term patches like Blu-ray or 3D are getting scarce and no sustainable solution is in sight. Uncertainty and anxiety amongst film professionals have reached levels that no observer could imagine possible. It’s simple: in a context where consumer practices are evolving that quickly, absolutely no one has any clear idea how cinema will be produced, consumed, and… financed, in the years to come. Only two things are for sure: technology swift novelties will be –and are already- affecting, penetrating and transforming all areas of filmmaking, including storytelling; and the next decade will witness far more radical changes than the one that just ended. Depending on whether one is conservative or liberal, pessimistic or not, cinema is entering either one of its most scary or exciting eras.

DiCaprio’s head, an open house

Symbolically, the plot of Toy Story 3 – and of several Hollywood productions in 2010 - is all about this gigantic fear of cinema to be abandoned. Woody, Buzz, and their friends enthusiastically gather all their energy to seduce Andy and not to end up in the attic, or worse in the refuse lorry. In this desperate attempt for films not to be considered as relics, the race for 3D has been very funny to follow this year. What many films, such as Clash of the Titans - roughly converted into 3D in post-production following the Avatar-effect, did not get is that Woody and his friends managed to keep Andy’s favors by ‘being themselves’. Of course, in 2010, if multiplexes had to play only compelling 3D films, their screens would have remained blank most of the time: besides the true achievements of Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, there were not many to save from the attic (let’s say with leniency How to train your dragon and Shrek 4). It was paradoxically so-called 2D-films that managed to create spectacular multi-dimensional universes, and they were not even Sci-Fi movies. Sophisticated Hollywood cinema recently got fascinated indeed in something very close to each of us: the human brain. Interestingly, one actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, carries by himself this new dominant genre of American cinema simultaneously very intellectual and very spectacular.

Whether it is a classical police thriller (Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island) or a frenetic action movie (Inception), audience now enters DiCaprio’s head as if it were an open house, zigzagging between his memories, dreams, and hallucinations. Very critical of current 3D, which he considers as a huge regress, Inception’s director Christopher Nolan has his own view on the situation: “When I hear that things go for the worse in Hollywood, I don’t believe it. Opportunities do exist. But are there filmmakers willing to catch them?” Hopefully, Nolan does not consider he is the only one…

Pantheism, the new trend

If Avatar somehow participates of this fashion of ‘brain-orientated’ films, sharing with Inception a hero lying down the entire story long with a brain plugged to a machine/computer, it also incarnates a major trend of the cinematographic year, and one that could be observed outside Hollywood as well: the joint need for nature and spirituality. With its enchanting world and its environment-friendly (almost New Age) discourse, Cameron naively believes in the power of the mysterious; a trend that encompasses religious aspects, at the crossroads between pantheism, Buddhism and monotheistic religions. The two main winners of the Cannes film festival, the Grand Prix Of God and Men and the Golden Palm Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, portray both characters drawing their spiritual strength from nature. In Xavier Beauvois’ film, Trappist monks live in harmony in the Algerian desert, sharing their time between prayers and manual work.

A social phenomenon in France, with more than three million admissions, the severe but authentic Of God and Men, that managed to attract indifferently catholic and atheist audiences, proves that the quest for meaning, far from being reserved to a cultural elite, will be at the core of successful cinema proposals in future. In Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee, as the title indicates, the main character is capable to recall his past lives, the jungle being the place assuming a mystical power from where ghosts are coming. The most notable absence of 2010, Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, which premiere has repeatedly been announced then postponed, and has now set a release for May 2011, indicates that the pantheist vein has a promising future, and many supporters amongst filmmakers and viewers alike.

The rush on TV series

Coming back to Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee, this year’s Golden Palm has been particularly significant of changes that cinema is currently witnessing. After the Golden Bear given in Berlin to a Turkish film (Semih Kaplanoglu’s Honey, another pantheistic view of the world by the way), this Thai success confirms that the world cinema map is more open than ever before. Refreshingly enough, one cannot predict from which corner of the planet the next masterpiece will come from. More importantly, it confirms the increasingly blurred borders of cinema, and its junctions with other media. A visual artist, Weerasethakul firstly imagined Uncle Boonmee as an exhibition that was called Primitive. Many recognized artists such as Steve McQueen, Shirin Neshat, or Banksy, recently debuted in cinema, and conversely more and more filmmakers venture in visual art, for instance David Lynch. Always pioneer, the director of Twin Peaks also paved the way many years ago for his colleagues to make it a try on TV.

In 2010 it might have taken less time to list the names of star directors NOT being involved in a TV series project than those who were. Whereas the two series that defined the decade, 24 and Lost, broadcast their last episode on Fox and ABC last May, the cable TVs have been crammed with projects. While AMC did not lack of critical darlings, for example Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or The Walking Dead, HBO not only convinced Martin Scorsese to direct the pilot of Boardwalk Empire, but also got on board for other series names such as Michael Mann, Kathrin Bigelow, or David Fincher (you know, the director of The Social Network). Did we forget anyone? Oh yes, Gus van Sant preparing the pilot of Boss for Starz. For Michael Lombardo, HBO’s programming director, “the borders [between cinema and TV] don’t exist anymore”. Are we surprised?

by Matthieu Darras