Don't be scared, it's not another bloody horror flick. But I admit it sounds like some satanic ceremony or I don't know, and even the "soundtrack" keeps up this first impression of ours...
So it's not a horror film, not even a feature one but a documentary. The first in this blog. Briefly: it's a documentary about "the future of the cinema". The question was taken by Wim Wenders, in May 1982 during the Cannes Film Festival in a hotelroom (you'll find out its number). The answers are coming from the directors who attended that year at the festival. Some of them disappeared already (their future is already answered..), some of them made a cinematic fortune.
"The future of the cinema". It's a typical Wenders-type question. Let's see the answers. Don't forget, we are in 1982!
Who else than Godard starts, who predicts "more and more movies look like tv series." Nice shot, but I would say the "future" brought exactly the opposite. At least in 2008. Besides his train of thoughts actually he is more interested to watch a tennis game (oh, Roland Garros, 1982) on the television, which is the best answer of the forced question:))
Monte Hellman (A Fistful of Dollars together with Leone) is coming: "I think that the last few years have been a bad period. I think that there haven't benn a lot of movies that I cared to see. And the ones that I've seen I've been disappointed in." Typical attitude toward the the contemporary cinema: everybody has a nostalgic feeling about the past, and this feeling works if we are talking about movies, too. But hey man, you're talking about the best years of the film history, about the seventies! No comment, go further.
Next to others Noel Simsolo is coming (never heard of him, maybe you? check): "It's not the cinema that's dead, it's the film-makers who make moronic films." He is really angry, after this sentence turned off the camera. What a primadonna..
Finally a real character! Fassbinder looks like some homeless truck driver, but his words are the winner. What is he said? I won't tell you: even a documentary might contain spoilers:)
Actually Herzog is on the ground, too. First of all he claims that he cannot answer this question with his shoes on. Haha, I'd like this answers on these questions... Above these he seems to be the best futurologist among the directors: he fantasizing about video cameras with which you can shop, take out money, or order food. After yesterday's news from Japan it's quite a good shot into the future. His summary about the pessimistic question is optimistic and funny: "What is the difference between the tv and the cinema? You can turn off the tv, but not the cinema." I like this.
Here comes the most optimistic one: How Spielberg is answering the question about the future of cinema? Of course he is talking about money. E.T. has eaten 10 million Dollars in 1982, and he believes that these costs will raise in the next years. Good guess, but I'm quite sure he was never thought about Spider Man 3's around half billion bucks...
The funniest part when is talking about the connection between film and audience. He believes that the people doesn't want to see some character who "masturbate for the first time at 13, whatever." Instead of that "You know, I want a picture that's going to please everybody." I accept this ars poetica, especially if the Indy4 will be as it looks like...
The next one is Antonioni. Strange to see him walking around, full energy. Anyway. His thoughts are quite sober: "The change is inevitable, and we can't do anything to prevent it. We will only have one thing to do: We will need to adapt." Wise and calm as his beautiful movies are.
That's all. Just one thing: this 45 minutes film has something like five points on the imdb. Maybe doesn't deserves more, but I'm quite sure that how the years will pass the ideas and the whole situation of this documentary will be more and more valuable but at least interesting.
7/10
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