In an essay entitled “Il Maestro” and dedicated to the master of cinema Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese takes the opportunity to put a layer back on streaming and its associated excesses.
Martin Scorsese doesn’t have his tongue in his pocket. We have known this for a long time and even if his angry outbursts sometimes make people smile, let’s not forget that they come from a filmmaker who sees his art mutating at the speed of light before his eyes and not always for the benefit of artists. . This is precisely what he denounces in a few paragraphs in this column that he signs in the Harper’s magazine.
Although he himself directed a film broadcast on Netflix, The Irishman, Martin Scorsese does not hesitate to recall the excesses of the streaming industry and their impact on the world of cinema.
” Just fifteen years ago, the term “content” was only heard when people seriously discussed cinema, and it was differentiated in “form”.
Then gradually it was used more and more by the people who took over the media, most of whom knew nothing about the history of this art form, or even cared enough about it. not to think they should.
“Content” has become a trade term for all moving images: a David Lean movie, a cat video, a Super Bowl commercial, a superhero sequel, a serial episode. It’s linked, of course, not to the theatrical experience but to home viewing, on streaming platforms that have come to overtake the cinematic experience, just as Amazon has replaced physical stores.
On the one hand, it was good for the filmmakers, myself included. On the other hand, it has created a situation where everything is presented to the viewer on an equal footing, which looks democratic but is not.
If more in-depth viewing is “suggested” by algorithms based on what you’ve seen before and the suggestions are based only on subject or genre, what does that do to the art of filmmaking? “
Words that give food for thought and which revive this question which is burning everywhere in the industry: What is cinema?
The Irishman trailer: