This and That (Where Great Conversations Are Happening)

[Veum]

🌚 goodnight to my fellow Psychos who need their rest now… ❣️😴🛌🥱

 

[Boilersteel]

2 hours ago, Veum said:

 

🌚 goodnight to my fellow Psychos who need their rest now… ❣️😴🛌🥱

 

 

Yardwork and sporting events upcoming, not sure I have the energy.

 

[Veum]

6 minutes ago, Boilersteel said:

 

Yardwork and sporting events upcoming, not sure I have the energy.

 

 

[Squeegie McGee]

[GuyIncognit0]

13 hours ago, Casiusco said:

Good morning, everybody.

 

It's been a week today since the death of Jean-Luc Godard. Someone who not only changed -really- the way of making films, but who, (very) far from being satisfied, or joining the possibility of making commercial films and earning a lot of money, continued to investigate and experiment until his last day.

 

He's a controversial figure, liked by some and disliked by others. But what has surprised me the most these days is not that there are people who don't like his work, or that there are people who even hate him, or -for example- say that the second half of his work was just smoke.

 

The most amazing, and worrying, thing is -once again- that fewer and fewer people know about him.

 

And the fact that there are fewer people who know him also means that there are fewer people who are influenced by his work. (Will another Tarantino be possible in the future?)

 

And that is not going forward: it's going backwards.

 

The new generations, who only recognize Spielberg for "Ready Player One", and who believe that Scorsese is an old, talentless failure who criticizes Marvel out of envy, because he has never had a success; and for whom a movie prior to the year 2000 is not only unbearable, but who are not able to see it, are not physically able to sit down and keep their attention on it; these new generations... are shaping the market. They are dictating where to go.

 

Because the industry, afraid of losing the thread, has preferred to sell what they were, what cinema is, at a low price, so as not to lose that market. It's as if in a school where they give a great education, in order not to lose new clients... they lowered the level even though the education ended up being a disaster. That at the last Emmys ceremony it was necessary to prepare the prizes perspective to wink at the "Tik tok generation" is to fall very low, it's humiliating. That the Oscars seek to connect with "new audiences" even if that means putting someone on stage who should never be there, or giving an award to a person or movie that 20 years ago would have been the meat of the MTV Awards, it's very significant.

 

For me, the most curious thing is that they degrade their own product, their own art; they denigrate it, for trying to reach this "new public", when, in reality, most of this new public is not very interested -not at all interested- in the cinema, in what the cinema really is, or in what the cinema can truly give.

 

And they are not interested because education fails. Because you can't ask someone -who isn't capable of watching a screen for 30 minutes at home without picking up their smartphone- to watch, not a Godard, but not even "Schlinder's List".

 

Curiously, for many of the members of these new generations, buying a film in physical format is ridiculous, obsolete, an absurd way of throwing money away.

 

And all this together has made me think today that perhaps there is a strong link between the CINEMA, well, with capital letters, be it Godard, be it Scorsese, be it Kubrick, John Ford, David Fincher, or any other; and the physical format. How those of us who received that cinephile education watching wonderful movies in the cinema, or on television, understand and enjoy the gesture of taking a physical edition with our hands, opening it, smelling it, and fulfilling the rite of putting the disc in the player, before to hit "play".

 

That doesn't mean that everything is absolute; there are always people of all kinds on all sides, I'm sure. But, of course, in my opinion, cinema as we have known, it's in danger. When these new generations are the majority we will have a problem. And maybe one day, we will be seen as obsolete old men who still practice a backward art that "doesn't interest anyone anymore."

 

Because the cinema, by then, will be another thing. Maybe not so different from those reels that are easily found, with someone who goes on a roller coaster with a go pro. (Long reels for the future?). But it will not be the only change, because now the wonderful old books that we all read as children are having to be updated because the new children are not able to read them. They need less difficult words, fewer pages, larger print, more pictures, and talk of "followers" at some point.

 

Godard said that "photography is the truth, and cinema is the truth 24 times a second".

 

Perhaps the new generations are not interested in the truth.

And, probably, it's true, and it's only interesting to hear what one wants to hear; on a personal, social, political, and even cultural level.

 

But what I have no doubt about is that this close link between CINEMA and physical format exists. And whatever happens to the streaming companies, change, mutate, move on or disappear, we will still be there.

 

Today in the morning it has given me to think that, deep down, we are "The Resistance".

 

No matter. Our time will come. For now, there are already many movies that we can only see those who have them at home.

 

And the human being is like that, like a pendulum; the cultural crisis will be followed by a return to the origins. And maybe then some (another) new generation, fed up with seeing a nobody tell on Tik Tok that he is eating a sandwich before bed, decide to try to find out why "Godfellas" drove us crazy.

 

Some will go further, others will not, but the journey will be worth it.

 

Long live Jean-Luc Godard!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/14/godard-shattered-cinema-martin-scorsese-mike-leigh-abel-ferrara-luca-guadagnino-and-more-pay-tribute

 

I read your post this morning and really wanted to take some time to appropriately respond but, alas, the day got away from me. 

 

I admittedly had no idea who he was. I'm just starting to get into film (as opposed to big blockbuster movies) so I'm a little interested in learning more about him. In college, we had a one-month-long semester that provided students with the opportunity to study abroad, do an internship, or pursue various electives. I decided to take a class on the history of film during one of those semesters. One of the first films we watched was Bicycle Thieves. You know what I remember? Being bored to death. What some consider to be one of the greatest films ever made and I was struggling to stay awake. An interesting thing happened as that summer went along though. My brain started to adjust and I began to really enjoy the complexity of such films. I never did rewatch Bicycle Thieves but it's something I need to do.

 

The biggest thing I learned from that class is the value of a film's perspective and voice. I agree that we are seeing too much of the same nowadays, but what can we do? Studios, now more than ever, are focused on raking in the cash and rarely take a "risk" on something that is not mainstream or part of a larger intellectual property. I guess all we can do is try to learn more and make sure to support the smaller endeavors.

 

I think the popularity of some smaller films and the A24 films shows that the market is still there. There is a still a decent-sized pocket of people yearning for something outside of the big budget films. I'm sure A24 is more of a blend of these two "types" of films but I think they are doing great work by introducing new perspectives and serving as a bit of a gateway to some more insightful filmmaking.

 

I'll just keep purchasing physical media and going to the theater as much as I possibly can because I see the value. Hopefully my kids will too. Anyway, I'm rambling. Thanks for another insightful post!

 

 

[Basil]

 good morning all happy wednesday 

i feel rough woken up with massive headache 🤯

 

basil 👍 

[Fortis93]

@Whodini Thought you might appreciate this. 😄

 

[Whodini]

1 hour ago, Fortis93 said:

@Whodini Thought you might appreciate this. 😄

 

 

Hahaha! Love it!

[Casiusco]

Good morning everybody.

 

Yesterday a woman I know came home for a few minutes looking for something. Seeing the shelves with my editions, she made a surprised face, and said:

 

"Wow, you like movies... But... wow, what a waste of space..., my husband also had... and I threw them away, all ended up in the garbage can. I don't go through that..."

 

I stood still, staring at her, thinking whether to answer or shut up.

In the end, since I'm a very polite guy, I kept quiet, and I kept thinking about her husband, a pretty nice guy.

 

Ladies and gentleman, please, have a moment of silence for the fallen soldier, for all our fallen soldiers, women or men, defeated by these kind of people.

 

They will always be in our hearts. ❤️

 

 

 

 

 

[Casiusco]

7 hours ago, GuyIncognit0 said:

 

I read your post this morning and really wanted to take some time to appropriately respond but, alas, the day got away from me. 

 

I admittedly had no idea who he was. I'm just starting to get into film (as opposed to big blockbuster movies) so I'm a little interested in learning more about him. In college, we had a one-month-long semester that provided students with the opportunity to study abroad, do an internship, or pursue various electives. I decided to take a class on the history of film during one of those semesters. One of the first films we watched was Bicycle Thieves. You know what I remember? Being bored to death. What some consider to be one of the greatest films ever made and I was struggling to stay awake. An interesting thing happened as that summer went along though. My brain started to adjust and I began to really enjoy the complexity of such films. I never did rewatch Bicycle Thieves but it's something I need to do.

 

The biggest thing I learned from that class is the value of a film's perspective and voice. I agree that we are seeing too much of the same nowadays, but what can we do? Studios, now more than ever, are focused on raking in the cash and rarely take a "risk" on something that is not mainstream or part of a larger intellectual property. I guess all we can do is try to learn more and make sure to support the smaller endeavors.

 

I think the popularity of some smaller films and the A24 films shows that the market is still there. There is a still a decent-sized pocket of people yearning for something outside of the big budget films. I'm sure A24 is more of a blend of these two "types" of films but I think they are doing great work by introducing new perspectives and serving as a bit of a gateway to some more insightful filmmaking.

 

I'll just keep purchasing physical media and going to the theater as much as I possibly can because I see the value. Hopefully my kids will too. Anyway, I'm rambling. Thanks for another insightful post!

 

 

 

Thanks for having the patience to read my long post, @GuyIncognit0. It was going to be a simple note, and it ended up being a reflection. 

And thanks for sharing your experience. It's interesting, very interesting. 

 

Because what happened to you has happened to all of us, even if some people don't recognize it.

 

Approaching some classics -or certain movies- is difficult, and although many don't think so, the brain is sometimes like a muscle, and you need to get used to it, practice. It all depends on the curiosity, patience, or personal interests of each one.

 

It's like trying to get a child to read a difficult book for him. You cannot start at the end, there is still a way to go. And some people want to pretend that they connect with those kinds of movies because they have a privileged mind, but most of the time it's not true.
You have to enter, you have to dive, and understand, you have to adapt.

 

Something similar happened to me with Godard. I speak from the end of the road, not because I am a special type.

 

I remember when I saw a film of his for the first time, the surprise and bewilderment. And yes, even boredom. I was at university, and mybe due to the magnitude of the name and that enormous influence that everybody said, joined to my usual stubbornness to understand, and a certain curiosity that always leads me to want to know even what I criticize, it made me want to delve into his work.

 

Little by little I watched films from his early days, and, as you say, my brain adapted. 

But even so, when I started trying to delve into the second and third stages of his work, I realized my obvious limitations, that maybe I needed to learn more about that language. Because some films seemed made with another visual language. And I began a journey between texts, books, articles, that could give me a certain perspective to be able to perceive or fit those other works. A perspective that would allow me a space where I would end up generating my own.

 

This, over the years, became a memorable, inalienable, entertaining, exciting trip, where I learned, enjoyed, and assumed things that from being taken as concept that is discussed... at a given moment became part of my way of understanding some things facing a screen. Little by little, from the distance of cinema and common television, I let myself go down dark, polyhedral, sometimes capricious paths.

 

But you have to like it. And everyone has their preferences.

 

And let's be honest: Godard is -maybe- the most difficult challenge among the greats. There are many people who can not with the last stage of his work, even filmmakers. Too experimental.

 

And you're absolutely right, studios are taking less and less risk. Movies are now decided by financiers, not filmmakers. The studios no longer have great filmmakers, historical men, driving what they do; only accountants and financial managers placed as boss.

 

But yes, there are still some exceptions, like A24, or other little studios or directors still able to carry out their projects, trying other things. That is the hope to be able to have variety.

 

And don't stop buying movies and going to the theater. I hope your kids follow you in some way. And that one day they too will enter some new world of cinema, having to adapt, and finding their own passions and priorities.

[GuyIncognit0]

2 hours ago, Casiusco said:

 

 

Approaching some classics -or certain movies- is difficult, and although many don't think so, the brain is sometimes like a muscle, and you need to get used to it, practice. It all depends on the curiosity, patience, or personal interests of each one.

 

It's like trying to get a child to read a difficult book for him. You cannot start at the end, there is still a way to go. And some people want to pretend that they connect with those kinds of movies because they have a privileged mind, but most of the time it's not true.
You have to enter, you have to dive, and understand, you have to adapt.

 

 

This is a great metaphor and very much how it worked for me. I'm getting better with movies but books are another issue, ha. Thanks for sharing your experiences as well. 

 

I'll just keep plugging along and diving into some of these "slower" films. It has certainly become enjoyable and they provide a nice balance between exercising my mind and 

relaxing. My interpretations are probably not "correct" but I appreciate the process. Those films also make me appreciate the medium a bit more. I find the use of various camera angles, lighting, etc to tell a story much more interesting that the seemingly endless exposition of some of the big budget films.  "The Assistant" is probably the last movie I watched that did this well. I know that film has its critics but I enjoyed it.

 

 

[Veum]

🌚 goodnight to my fellow Psychos who need their rest now… ❣️😴🛌🥱

 

[nathan_s82]

Another Wednesday in the book, how bout we call it Wonderous Wednesday for now on?

[damships]

4 hours ago, nathan_s82 said:

Another Wednesday in the book, how bout we call it Wonderous Wednesday for now on?

Mine was far from wonderous. lol

 

[ShadowWarrior]

working on a new project.....

 

 

 

[ShadowWarrior]

Hey @Gary K I really like that guardian icon, I'm kinda jealous, mine is just a bar with "moderator". I guess there's no cool icon for us 😂

[ShadowWarrior]

Also damn, my apologies for just rolling in here like I never left. What up my Psycho fam!

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by ShadowWarrior

[Gary K]

1 minute ago, ShadowWarrior said:

Hey @Gary K I really like that guardian icon, I'm kinda jealous, mine is just a bar with "moderator". I guess there's no cool icon for us 😂

Maybe some of our graphic design members can come up with a new moderator badge!

[GuyIncognit0]

2 hours ago, damships said:

Mine was far from wonderous. lol

 

Sorry to hear, Dam. There are times where I miss healthcare but then I remember all of the BS. 
 

Hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

[GuyIncognit0]

46 minutes ago, ShadowWarrior said:

working on a new project.....

 

You’ve piqued my interest. Is this going to be MP’s version of the Dundies?

 

 

22 minutes ago, ShadowWarrior said:

Also damn, my apologies for just rolling in here like I never left. What up my Psycho fam!

 

 

Nice to see you in here! Sometimes it feels like members get promoted and then they sail off to Valinor, lol

[ShadowWarrior]

10 minutes ago, GuyIncognit0 said:

You’ve piqued my interest. Is this going to be MP’s version of the Dundies?

 

 

 

Nice to see you in here! Sometimes it feels like members get promoted and then they sail off to Valinor, lol

No Dundies lol and yeah once promoted @deckard99 makes us regular mods take the trash out and other tasks so we get kinda busy.

 

But no I've been busy with real life and here!

 

 

 

 

 

[nathan_s82]

3 hours ago, damships said:

Mine was far from wonderous. lol

 

Sorry to hear that, hope it got better.

[GuyIncognit0]

7 hours ago, ShadowWarrior said:

No Dundies lol and yeah once promoted @deckard99 makes us regular mods take the trash out and other tasks so we get kinda busy.

 

But no I've been busy with real life and here!

 

 

 

 

 

Take out the trash? 

 

Sheesh. I’m not going to mess around with the mods anymore…

 

[Gary K]

9 minutes ago, GuyIncognit0 said:

Take out the trash? 

 

Sheesh. I’m not going to mess around with the mods anymore…

 

 

[GuyIncognit0]

13 minutes ago, Gary K said:

 

They already have you running drills, huh?