Martin Scorsese Explains That Cinema is Not Dying, "It's Transforming"
Director Martin Scorsese has been sharing his thoughts on the state of cinema for years and during a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, where he is receiving an Honorary Golden Bear, and when asked if he thought cinema was dying, he responded by saying that it he believes that the industry is “transforming.” He explained that it was never meant to be one thing:
“I don’t think it’s dying at all, no. I think it’s transforming. It never was meant to be one thing. We were used to it being one thing. I grew up [with cinema] as one thing: if you wanted to see a movie you went to a theater. A good theater or a bad theater, but it was a theater. It was always a communal experience.
“But the technology’s changed so rapidly and exhaustedly, that in a sense the only thing you can really hold on to is the individual voice. The individual voice, I must say, can express itself on TikTok or can express itself on a four-hour film or a two-hour miniseries.”
When technology is brought up, specifically, the threat of A.I., Scorsese said that we shouldn’t “let the technology scare us.” He shared:
“Don’t become a slave to the technology — let us control the technology and put it in the right direction. The right direction being from the individual voice, rather than something that is just consumed and tossed away.”
The filmmaker also offered an update on the new Jesus film project he’s developing, which is an idea that he’s still thinking about. He said:
“What kind of film I’m not quite sure, but I want to make something unique and different that could be thought-provoking and I hope also entertaining. I’m not quite sure yet how to go about it. But once we finish our rounds here of promoting the film, maybe I’ll get some sleep and then wake up and I’ll have this fresh idea on how to do it.”
Scorsese previously talked about urging young filmmakers to reinvent cinema in this age of streaming and says, “I didn’t want to be the last line of defense.” He shared:
“I honestly think it’s thrown back now with all of you. And I really mean this: I don’t know where cinema is going to go. Why does it have to be the same as it was for the past 90-100 years? It doesn’t. Do we prefer films from the last 90-100 years? I do, but I’m old. Younger people are going to see the world around them in a different way, you’re going to see it fragmented … What does one shot mean now? I don’t know anymore. I don’t think it means anything … You all are in the process of a period of reinventing it. It’s quite an extraordinary time, and a lot of it has to do with the technology.”
Scorsese went talked about the new technology and how it brings more freedom, but he also said it should cause young filmmakers to “rethink what you want to say and how you want to say it. Ideally, I hope — I hesitate to use the word — ‘serious’ film could still be made with this new technology and this new world we’re apart of.”
The director also shared what it was like for him as a kid and his love of going to the movies, and how he also hopes that more “serious” films do make a comeback at the cinema and the franchise movies have taken over:
“I’m afraid the franchise films will be taking over the theaters. I always ask the theater owners to create a space where younger people would say they want to see this new film, which is not a franchise film, in a theater and share that with everybody around them. So that they want to go to the theater, that it’s something inviting that doesn’t get them to say they could see it at home. Because the experience of seeing a film with a lot of people is really still the key, I think. But I’m not sure that can be easily achieved at this point.”
The movie industry certainly is changing and it’s changing fast, but yeah, I don’t think it’s dying either. What do you think about what Scorsese is saying here about the state of the movie industry?
Source: Variety