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January 5, 2007
More Denby Links
Michael at Zigzigger tackles a few points I missed in my original bullet-point read of Denby's New Yorker article on the state of Hollywood (and, no, I have no idea why I called it "brilliant" in my original blog entry--blame it on the lack of caffeine).
In particular, Michael reminds us that Denby's article seems to ignore or misread some of the big changes in exhibition that have taken place since the 1970s. In praticular, Michael correctly takes Denby to task for "neglecting the boom in theater construction in the 1990s and early 2000s that has perpetuated and exacerbated opening-weekend mania." And, like Michael, I found the Denby piece most useful when describing digital viewing experiences.
Michael also points to a second Carpetbagger blog entry that more or less rips Denby's article to shreds. The Bagger offers an eloquent take on many of the holes in Denby's argument (movie theaters aren't the "graveyards" Denby imagines them to be, box office actually increased slightly 2007, Hollywood studios *know* the game has changed). But the Bagger's response to Denby is also helpful in its characterterization of corrupt studios and their relationship to a relatively compliant entertainment press. Not much to add right now, but these readings have complicated my original comments to some extent.
Also worth checking out: The New York Observer's "Stardust Memo" to Hollywood.
Update: AO Scott weighs in on the Denby discussion, concluding:
Moviegoing, though unlikely to disappear, will probably never again be the universal rite it once was. This is not a catastrophe, just a change of habit. Going to the movies may survive as an acquired taste, and also, therefore, as an activity through which taste is acquired.Scott desrcibes the practice of taking his own children (ages 10 and 7) to a variety of movies over the last few months, reading the moviegoing ritual through Frank O'Hara's 1960 poem, “Ave Maria.”
Update 2: Jim Thompson also has an overview of this debate, and, even better, a pointer to David Bordwell's analysis of the structures of several recent Hollywood films. Bordwell's read on Fast Food Nation's rewarding use of the "network narrative" structure is especially helpful and underscores much of what I like about Linklater's film.
Posted by chuck at January 5, 2007 10:33 AM
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Comments
I think the only thing I have left to add is that my grandmother probably logged more hours at the "pictures" than me, my parents, Denby, the current generation of young people, etc.
That is to say, it's a long history of various practices.
Posted by: zp at January 5, 2007 2:39 PM
I think the phenomenon is not unlike bookstores... Where can you find an independent bookstore now? Where can you find an independent cinema?
Sure, they are out there, but the movie going experience has changed so much and become such a homogenized experience...
Also the movie going experience has changed to become an in-home experience... technology allows people to approximate the theater experience in their own homes.
The good news is that the market for films is not going anywhere. But like good books, good films have to work hard to find an audience among the potboilers.
Posted by: ohdave at January 8, 2007 9:44 AM
The Denby article is pretty solid on changes in "moviegoing," and while it's certainly true that technology may allow in-home distribution (think of the less-than-successful distribution of Steven Soderbergh's Bubble last year), the theatrical experience isn't going away anytime soon.
Posted by: Chuck at January 8, 2007 12:50 PM