Sunday, September 19, 2021
Revolution cannot be stopped
The cinema adapts to streaming
From Lutz Meier
The streaming revolution has not only turned the film industry upside down, it may also upset cinematic storytelling itself. This could already be seen at the Venice Film Festival this year
At the weekend in Venice, awards were given to films that show where the cinema industry is headed. The winner of the golden lion leads back to France in the 1960s. “L’Évènement” by the director Audrey Diwan shows the path of a student in what was then Angoulême who accidentally becomes pregnant. Classic cinema, then, a filmed novel, told chronologically, staged with precisely withdrawn actresses and loving equipment.
This is what the second film, which won a main prize, has to offer: Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino goes back around 35 years in “The Hand of God” (“È stata la mano di Dio”) and also ties in with the golden days of cinema . In his melancholy retrospective bathed in warm evening light, for example, he shows filming in the historic Galleria Umberto I in Naples to return to how he himself came to film.
Sorrentino’s own film will of course – with a few exceptions in Italy – not be shown in the cinema at all; he shot it for the streaming provider Netflix. It’s the same with cinema as it is everywhere: only when something disappears do nostalgic retrospectives experience inflation.
Streaming is becoming the main business
The streaming revolution and the pandemic are the greatest impulses for change in cinema in decades. For months, in some countries more than a year, the cinemas were closed. It cannot be remembered often enough that Hollywood and everything related to it came into being a good 100 years ago as a result of a pandemic: the Spanish flu. Paramount co-founder Adolph Zukor bought the cinemas that were ailing as a result of the forced closings in bulk, other studios followed. For the first time, an industry dominated the entire chain, from artistic production to commercial exploitation.
This time it’s streaming that changes things. Years before Corona, Netflix and Amazon had started streaming their own productions and attracting talent. But since the pandemic saw people from almost all age groups and milieus sitting and streaming at home en masse, the old chain of exploitation in the cinema business has finally been shot down. Even Hollywood studios such as Disney and Warner now see streaming as their main business and no longer the cinema as the starting point in the battle for viewers. Even if the cinemas are open again and the viewers pour in. It will no longer be the same as it was before. Fewer films will come to viewers this way. And other films.
This was the first time that it could be seen in such a concentrated manner in Venice. The narrative forms that are successful on the streaming portals seem to be gaining ground.
If the selection of the festival is reasonably representative, then two things happen: More films tie in with the well-known: historical events, collective memories, they film successful books or come straight away as remakes, like the 165 million dollar new edition of the science fiction classic “Dune”, which was shown in Venice and then (at least in America) is immediately streamed. With such large-scale productions, on which the leading studios concentrate, it has been the case for a long time that almost only “franchises” are created, that is, established brands such as “Star Wars” are squeezed further and deeper.
Struggle for attention
In streaming it is also the case that formerly successful films are returning as series: “Fargo”, “The children from Bahnhof Zoo”, “Das Boot”. The new edition of Ingmar Bergman’s “Scenes from a Marriage” had its premiere in Venice. HBO, the streaming portal of the Warner group, staged it with great effort and Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac under the title “Scenes from A Marriage”. The audience is more easily excited about something that is somehow already known than about original material.
Likewise, directors and producers rely much more on speed and classic, e.g. chronological narrative structures. Disturbances and lengths lead to an immediately measurable escape of the audience in streaming, while an audience tied to the cinema seat would possibly get involved more strongly. The battle for attention has become grueling in the age of streaming because viewers have instant access to all alternatives just a few clicks away.
Under these conditions, the Venice festival has created the best starting conditions in comparison with its counterparts in Cannes and Berlin. Venice took place in 2020 and 2021 despite Corona and has consolidated its position as a major showcase for the Oscar season this year. Half a dozen films that should be shortlisted for the Los Angeles Film Awards in March were presented here: In addition to “Dune”, for example, “The Lost Daughter” by Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Power of A Dog” by Jane Campion, “The Card Counter” by Paul Schrader or the Charles and Diana drama “Spencer” by Pablo Larraín.
No streaming in Cannes
Cannes was canceled in 2020 and came back in 2021 with a full and top-class program, but suffers from the strict rejection of any streaming productions. This cuts you off from many developments in film. After all, the Berlinale could only take place virtually this March and with a reduced program and therefore no longer exploit its advantage as a public festival. If those responsible are not careful, it could further lose its attractiveness for larger productions.
However, the worst fears from the Corona period have not been confirmed – that the cinema would only inspire a few after its long absence. In front of the premiere palace on the Lido di Venezia, this year, like last year, a large privacy screen was built – to prevent the pandemic from gathering too much on the red carpet. But at the only slit in this wall, a cluster of people gathered even more. This magic is unbroken.
This text first appeared on capital.de.