Musing about the movies
The hemorrhaging of life as we know/knew it since Covid-19 continues as some mainstream cinema chains join the list of household brands that are closing or making redundancies. It has been argued that all these changes were predicted anyway and that Covid-19 is merely an accelerant.
I only know of two people in my wider circle of friends who decided to brave the cinema since March and they chose an independent cinema chain for their outing. The big chains decided that since the release of the new James Bond movie and other blockbusters were on hold that it was no longer viable to operate, at least temporarily or in the short and medium term.
I love watching blockbusters and I love independent cinema. However, I have been tired of the constant remakes, groaning money-grabbing sequels, comic book iterations and remakes, sexist, lazy, witless and cringeworthy dialogue. If movies aren’t made for me as the demographic why should I spend over £30 each time to go to the cinema? The desperation of movie studios to monetise the living daylights out of a franchise and their risk averse attitude to anything genuinely new has led, I believe, to many of us feeling that we aren’t missing anything from the cinema experience.
I am also unimpressed when female directors implore us to support their latest adaptations of topics such as Little Women. I love to support female directors, however, in addition to twelve TV adaptations Little Women has been given the Hollywood treatment six times. Is that really necessary? Move on to fresh material, there are millions of books out there. I love period drama but bin the bonnets for a while!
One of my favourite independent cinemas in London is The Prince Charles Cinema which shows cinema greats, old favourites and edgier movies. It has been wonderful, for example, getting the chance to watch movies that we were too young to watch when originally released, or not alive at the time…or just to watch again for the sake of it. The big screen and surround sound is such a pleasure. To get bums on seats again, why don’t the cinemas follow their lead and be assertive?
However, I’m quite sure that just as the mainstream fashion industry didn’t change much since lockdown, the mainstream movie industry won’t change much either.