Loved this post Dave! As Non-Dē starts producing more films (maybe 50 in 2025?) there should be ample opportunity for all of us to discover some new and bold films. “Plonk” might be my new favorite word.
We've been quietly listing long lost (or just lost) Italian cinemas. Sadly, as we are of a certain age, we can remember most of them (at least in Rome). Many are now just shut up. Or worst, gutted and offered as areas for what has been called 'immersive experiences'. Two words to really chill the bones this autumn.
If it helps, I truly believe the "immersive experiences" are a fad - a bit of desperation on the multiplexes' part, and it'll fade. But smaller, local, and micro-cinema theaters I think will make a comeback, even amongst the youger generations. I doubt cinemas will ever again be as pervasive as they were in the past, but they'll find a new balance with our need for in-person gatherings balanced with the digital. We're just in a growing pains transition time right now. But keep the faith! And keep listing / preserving the history. Cheers, Philip.
Hear Hear!! It's always awesome hanging with you and reading your work. I couldn't be more on board and I'm excited to hear some really deep cut film recs. Much love, Dave.
I wish I could get the same satisfaction from browsing a streaming service as I did a great video store but it doesn’t really feed my need to find the obscure - it makes me want to find titles that don’t stream at all! (I have an upcoming piece about that).
I know, I know, though I've been trying to get us cinephiles to let go of this anti-digital / romanticizing physical media wall we've errected for ourselves. I wrote about this a couple months back, but only roughly 35K movies were ever put on disc of any kind at the height of the DVD boom. Now we have 250K+ movies available to us on any given day. It should be a cinephile's paradise, and yet we've gotten weird about it, sometimes for good reason, but often for reasons that rose-color the past and aren't accurate to the present state of things.
A large slice of streaming films are the films that distributors won't touch, that aren't "important" enough, that are self-distributed or via very small underground-ish labels. Streaming isn't jsut subscription services: it's rentals, it's purchases, where the greatest amount of money can potentially make it back to the creators. Anything that isn't streaming, will be vaulted studio content - Prizing those would be missing the point and glorifying the wrong films. "Streamers" are often blamed for such films not being available, but they don't own the rights. It's plain old-fashioned studio practices that vault films, that ignore clearing rights because it would cost more time than the film is deemed to be worth, these are the same studios that kept vast parts of their libraries OOP during the physical media boom of the 90's and 00's.
Back then, we thought finding EVIL DEAD 2 or EL MARIACHI - distributed wide and festival darlings - were "discoveries"; and to be fair, they were. But the level of discovery available now is on a whole 'nother level. Physical media is great, but it's part of that past version more often than not. Discovering the modern gems requires the embrace of digtial in thhe majority of cases.
Oh yeah, modern cinema, 100%. Streaming is effectively the only game in town.
With older titles, it’s less about physical media for me as it is a satisfaction in finding whatever is hard to find (and many of these can only be found digitally anyway). An example would be, in the past couple of years I dove into the filmographies of Robert Hossein (who I wrote about for Noir City) and Yasuzō Masumura. Hossein, nothing is available at all — as really barely any French Noir past the canon is watchable anywhere. Masumura, a few are available out of dozens of movies (Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote extensively about trying to track down his films).
I like digging under rocks, and I do miss physical spaces, but this definitely does not relate to contemporary releases.
Cool cool. I'm with you on the digging under rocks and finding the hard to find. Though thanks to the global efforts of users / obsessives like us, most of these films are preserved in whatever the best version ever avilable was. God bless the Internet Archive, for example, plus I beelong to a number of private torrent sites that are godsends for this. For example, one dedicated ti Asian cinema has 58 of Masumura's films availble. And often in HD, thanks to HDTV and regional Bluray rips.
I think this true preservation of the past is the work of the present. We assumed the rights holders would by motivated to do it for themselves, but yikes, nope.
And TV broadcasts! It blew my mind tho discover that whole chunks of Doctor Who are lost. Preserving this stuff is such a new thought, historically speaking. Entertainment was never meant to be revisited.
Hell no, we don't need another JP7 or the like! Here's to being INTENTIONAL with our viewing choices. I have more titles on #ToWatch list that I will ever get to within the life expectancy for me of my BMI... even if I maintain my current rate of consumption (of movies that is). We have a wonderful abundance of great films (including those that are great bad ones!).
Amen to INTENTIONAL! And absolutely - good-bad movies are such a joy, though when I stumble on a rough and ready film that works so beautifully well once you adjust to its complete lack of polish? Like here's a film that can't rest on its production values *at all*, and yet works so beautifully on every levvel - those films make me want to sing and dance.
Loved this post Dave! As Non-Dē starts producing more films (maybe 50 in 2025?) there should be ample opportunity for all of us to discover some new and bold films. “Plonk” might be my new favorite word.
We've been quietly listing long lost (or just lost) Italian cinemas. Sadly, as we are of a certain age, we can remember most of them (at least in Rome). Many are now just shut up. Or worst, gutted and offered as areas for what has been called 'immersive experiences'. Two words to really chill the bones this autumn.
If it helps, I truly believe the "immersive experiences" are a fad - a bit of desperation on the multiplexes' part, and it'll fade. But smaller, local, and micro-cinema theaters I think will make a comeback, even amongst the youger generations. I doubt cinemas will ever again be as pervasive as they were in the past, but they'll find a new balance with our need for in-person gatherings balanced with the digital. We're just in a growing pains transition time right now. But keep the faith! And keep listing / preserving the history. Cheers, Philip.
Hear Hear!! It's always awesome hanging with you and reading your work. I couldn't be more on board and I'm excited to hear some really deep cut film recs. Much love, Dave.
I wish I could get the same satisfaction from browsing a streaming service as I did a great video store but it doesn’t really feed my need to find the obscure - it makes me want to find titles that don’t stream at all! (I have an upcoming piece about that).
I know, I know, though I've been trying to get us cinephiles to let go of this anti-digital / romanticizing physical media wall we've errected for ourselves. I wrote about this a couple months back, but only roughly 35K movies were ever put on disc of any kind at the height of the DVD boom. Now we have 250K+ movies available to us on any given day. It should be a cinephile's paradise, and yet we've gotten weird about it, sometimes for good reason, but often for reasons that rose-color the past and aren't accurate to the present state of things.
A large slice of streaming films are the films that distributors won't touch, that aren't "important" enough, that are self-distributed or via very small underground-ish labels. Streaming isn't jsut subscription services: it's rentals, it's purchases, where the greatest amount of money can potentially make it back to the creators. Anything that isn't streaming, will be vaulted studio content - Prizing those would be missing the point and glorifying the wrong films. "Streamers" are often blamed for such films not being available, but they don't own the rights. It's plain old-fashioned studio practices that vault films, that ignore clearing rights because it would cost more time than the film is deemed to be worth, these are the same studios that kept vast parts of their libraries OOP during the physical media boom of the 90's and 00's.
Back then, we thought finding EVIL DEAD 2 or EL MARIACHI - distributed wide and festival darlings - were "discoveries"; and to be fair, they were. But the level of discovery available now is on a whole 'nother level. Physical media is great, but it's part of that past version more often than not. Discovering the modern gems requires the embrace of digtial in thhe majority of cases.
Oh yeah, modern cinema, 100%. Streaming is effectively the only game in town.
With older titles, it’s less about physical media for me as it is a satisfaction in finding whatever is hard to find (and many of these can only be found digitally anyway). An example would be, in the past couple of years I dove into the filmographies of Robert Hossein (who I wrote about for Noir City) and Yasuzō Masumura. Hossein, nothing is available at all — as really barely any French Noir past the canon is watchable anywhere. Masumura, a few are available out of dozens of movies (Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote extensively about trying to track down his films).
I like digging under rocks, and I do miss physical spaces, but this definitely does not relate to contemporary releases.
Cool cool. I'm with you on the digging under rocks and finding the hard to find. Though thanks to the global efforts of users / obsessives like us, most of these films are preserved in whatever the best version ever avilable was. God bless the Internet Archive, for example, plus I beelong to a number of private torrent sites that are godsends for this. For example, one dedicated ti Asian cinema has 58 of Masumura's films availble. And often in HD, thanks to HDTV and regional Bluray rips.
I think this true preservation of the past is the work of the present. We assumed the rights holders would by motivated to do it for themselves, but yikes, nope.
I still can't get over the fact that over 75% of silent films are lost forever!
And TV broadcasts! It blew my mind tho discover that whole chunks of Doctor Who are lost. Preserving this stuff is such a new thought, historically speaking. Entertainment was never meant to be revisited.
Great post, Dave, and thanks for the shout-out. I'm now going to seek out Uptight!
It's soooo good. Not for everyone, but there are 3 specific lengthy scenes that I've never quite seen anything else like them.
Hell no, we don't need another JP7 or the like! Here's to being INTENTIONAL with our viewing choices. I have more titles on #ToWatch list that I will ever get to within the life expectancy for me of my BMI... even if I maintain my current rate of consumption (of movies that is). We have a wonderful abundance of great films (including those that are great bad ones!).
Amen to INTENTIONAL! And absolutely - good-bad movies are such a joy, though when I stumble on a rough and ready film that works so beautifully well once you adjust to its complete lack of polish? Like here's a film that can't rest on its production values *at all*, and yet works so beautifully on every levvel - those films make me want to sing and dance.