In Principio_S1 2018_WEB

I N P R I N C I P I O | 2 3 CAN CINEMA SURVIVE AGAINST THE RISE OF NETFLIX? By the end of 2017, Netflix had more than 118 million subscribers around the world and forecast annual revenues of $12.2bn by 2020. As the race to provide online content gathers pace, can the cinema again prove its resilience—having already outlasted the VHS, DVD and internet ages—to drive the Hollywood blockbuster back into the spotlight? Notre Dame’s Dr Ari Mattes is a media and film expert and regularly reviews movies for The Conversation. He answers leading questions around the ‘small is beautiful’ trend and the resilience of big-screen, quality motion picture productions. Q1. WILL THE RISE OF STREAMING SERVICES LIKE NETFLIX MARK THE END OF CINEMA? Not really. The ‘death’ of cinema has been predicted several times since the onset of commercial cinema in the early 20th century. During this period, three major media technologies have been touted as potentially lethal for cinema: the first was television, in the 1950s; the second was home video, in the 1980s; and the third is downloading from the Internet (streaming is an extension of this phase). With each perceived threat, Hollywood/the motion picture industry has responded by providing new technologies and gimmicks befitting a big-screen experience (consider the waves of popularity of 3D, for example, in the 1950s, 1980s, and 2000s). Cinema has withstood these assaults for the simple fact that people still delight in the participatory nature of cinema as a mass spectacle. Going to the movies remains an event and there is not necessarily much evidence to support the idea that this kind of event will soon disappear. In fact, the contrary is more plausible. As streaming services like Netflix grow, people will increasingly crave the big screen experience as an alternative to the endless stream of images appearing on their often increasingly small devices. Q2. WHY IS STREAMING SUCH AN ATTRACTIVE OPTION? It’s easy, it’s cheap, and there are no ads. At the same time, some viewers like the control over their experience enabled by these services. The nature of the experience is akin to that of home video, but the difference is that there is so much more available directly to the screen without having to go through the video store and without the intermediary of the video cassette. Netflix has definitely put paid to the video store as an institution, and this in itself is a shame, as video stores were often central meeting places for members of local communities. Q3. CINEMA INDUSTRY CRITICS ARGUE THAT BAD PRODUCTIONS ARE TURNING PEOPLE AWAY. IS THIS TRUE? People have decried the poor aesthetic quality of cinema since its commercial origins. It is impossible to argue, really, that films are becoming “worse”, but what is undeniable is that studios have responded to the threats of TV, home video and streaming by pushing for films that have broader commercial and big screen appeal (Hollywood epics, for example, and the contemporary blockbuster). The ‘family film’ is one such phenomenon, attempting to draw both adults and children alike into the cinema. Q4. WHY DO YOU THINK THE CINEMA INDUSTRY IS SO RESILIENT? The resilience of cinema is due to two fundamental and related components: the psychological and affective power of moving images; and the social pleasure of collective mass events. The ability of moving images to both reflect and inspire dreams and desires has been widely considered since at least the time of Plato’s ruminations on the dangerous potential of light flickering on the walls of a cave, and has been a key element in both the cultural and political life of the 20th and 21st centuries. Consider, for example, the commitment of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to the popular moving image. At the same time, there is something existentially and socially appealing about watching spectacles in large groups, which goes back to the earliest phases of social evolution. Cinema, combining these two elements, emerges in the age of mass production, and cinema impresarios benefit from the increased urbanisation attendant with industrialisation. Q & D R A R I MAT T E S