The Death of Cinema pt. 94

its all KNOCKED UP's fucking fault.

But that is the New Adolescence, I guess.

kinda but i concede that Apatow, even with Superbad, has cracked it with getting people 16, 26 AND 36 roffling in the aisles

is Knocked Up YOUTH-oriented?

It's het-oriented, and those hets who secretly fantasize about kissing Paul Rudd.

My only peeve about Knocked Up sight unseen is how it was being sold as some sort of sleeper when it had as big a promotional push as any other summer blockbuster of the Michael Bay ilk.

so you had a problem with the marketing of the marketing.

I don't believe I'm the one that's been bitching about Knocked Up on this thread.

look, if something valuable and good about past cultural arrangements (in this case, smart/euro/avant/classy movies being more widely loved or just more widely available -- if this was even true, but let's just say, for argument, it was) is dying, we just have to grit our teeth and let it die, frankly. why? cos there's no solution to the "problem" that's feasible let alone right.

what do you do, other than submit all production to some kind of morbs-approved board of culture? how does one prevent apatow films from getting to their audience? or insist that same audience go to a bergman retro instead?

hah i was gonna say "speaking to my experience" = why i rate apatow highly (well, not the only reason)

-- impudent harlot, Thursday, September 13, 2007 4:50 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah me too! i was saying that taiwanese guy wasn't my stuff.

damn me for being het, i guess.

look, I wouldn't at all be surprised if KU turns out to be superior to the whole of 'mumblecore.'

The solution, as always, involvbes voting with your wallet. And The People are doing so with the same perspicacity they have in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

that is specious bullshit

perhaps! It's even worse in the other popular arts. Britney gave a trainwreck performance?? How could they tell?

(cuz it sounds way more interesting than her stellar past)

look there's more to the huge industrial/cultural changes afoot than demonstrating, again, typical little-manhattan handwringing about the great unwashed. if you want to make some connection between Apatow and GWB, go ahead, but it's gotta be something more substantial than "ppl other than me, dr morbius, famed internet complainer, are retards"

Britney gave a trainwreck performance?? How could they tell?

oh COME ON

forget Apatow.

"we" like movies and presidents that go BOOM. The End.

socialism

Great thread.

Irony: I am going to see Knocked Up tonight for $2 at the awesome cheap theater near where I live.

Possible irony: I am finally going to see the Mexican gay art film (and Armond White fave) Broken Sky tonight, which I rented from Kim's Video. And if you fellas wanna see some REAL snobs, meet the staff there.

enticing

one half of Coldcut made the remark in an interview once that he was totally okay with the whole Ninjatune thing having a very limited audience, because "most people don't care about music!" and pointed out some woman walking by with a baby carriage as an example "they've got lots of other stuff on their mind." etc.

People are always going to make and consume twatty bullshit, that doesn't mean the slightly more sophisticated and exploratory entertainments have to die. If anything the modern marketplace has and will continue to provide the Long Tail stuff with more lucrative rewards and a more widespread audience than we've ever experienced in our lifetime.

That's true. It makes me happy to think that "Mon Oncle" is still making money!

http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2007/01/la_jete_on_yout.html

If the work of any of these directors is analagous to Ninja Tune I will happily let the whole fucking shebang die.

(I have no opinion on the subject in question, just wanted to get that shot in)

They've been calling Broadway theatre The Fabulous Invalid for about 40 years now, perhaps we just need a similarly agreed-upon handle for cinema to stop these endless Death waves.

you're just not cool enough for Coldcut, Matt.

i'd like to thank everyone on this thread for avoiding quoting film critics

This thread is a lie told 94 times per second.

But... but genres only get interesting after they die! Why the hand-wringing?

OK, so now I have seen Knocked Up and I can say that it's just inappropriate to bring it up in this particular conversation.

Which is to say I liked it fine (true, it speaks somewhat to my experience even though I don't recognize myself in any of the characters), but what sort of conversation forces this against Buñuel? Who gains from the comparison?

Peter Greenaway just texted me about this thread.

Peter Greenaway!

I hope he said something scathing and big-breasted.

He VJ'ed a defiant middle finger at me.

but what sort of conversation forces this against Buñuel? Who gains from the comparison?

Ask Morbs.

is Knocked Up YOUTH-oriented? Appears aimed squarely at 21-34 to me. But that is the New Adolescence, I guess.

People also be having babies much later in life, go fig.

by youth-oriented i meant 'transformers' rather than 'knocked up'.

greenaway really does love the vjing. he also likes cd-roms.

Shut up everybody I'm trying to watch the fucking film.

Buñuel vs The Sunshine Boys

Ask Greenaway when the goddamn Tulse Luper Suitcases are going to show (or be available) in the States. (he's a big Death of Cinema guy, btw)

he killed it

Greenaway killed the Cinema Stars

went to see a MATINEE yesterday and it cost me 7.50. no wonder attendance is down (im assuming it is down). plus it was that 500 days of summer film which was dissappointing.

The other reason is the multitude of entertainments (to add to the six at the top of the thread) (maybe added later I only read the beginning of this).

kidnapping of avant-garde film by the art world

Stuff like Zidane? When it was screened on TV I was like 'oh damn wish I saw this at the cinema, its perfect for that space'. Guys like Mark Kermode HATED IT for its art worldliness: lame.

Some days I could really do with going 2-3 times. See you at the last screening.

i'm not sure if attendance is "down". compared to when, is the question. iirc the nadir of attendance was the early 1980s. and the whole period from the late 50s till then was of continuing decline. attendance "now" (i.e. the 2000s rather than autumn 2009) is "up" on 25 years ago, and, i think, even on fifteen years ago. it's still a precarious bidness, at the moment because the bottom has dropped out of dvd sales and yeah i guess also piracy. oh right yeah and the industry's suicidally tight demographic gearing towards the very young.

i think its staying level compared to alot of media industries at the moment - people still enjoying/willing to shell out for the cinema in hard times etc - but i cant imagine its what it once was. youd think theyd try and steer prices down a bit to get more bums on the seats at the moment or maybe that just doesnt make economic sense.

Other than weekends before noon, most of the NYC 'plex shows are $12.50.

AO Scott still wondering why foreign films are next-to-invisible in America:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/movies/awardsseason/30scott.html

there's an essay in the most recent GQ titled 'when the movies died' or something -- it's about how hollywood is stifling creativity & will only greenlight comic book movies, sequels and adaptations -- i haven't finished it yet but it's pretty good

who wrote?