I have to confess that I have a 10 x 10 storage unit wall to wall, floor to ceiling with Blu-ray and DVD discs I have collected over the years, the important ones of which I use a disc copy program to transfer to external hard drives—meaning they have only been “used” once and in “like new” condition; at some point if I am in desperate need of money I’ll start selling some of them off.
The thing is that although I occasionally dabble in “cult” and “art” films, I am mainly interested in “classic” cinema dating from the silent film era. As for popular music, I think the 1970s was greatest period for films as well, but whatever is “good” for the first half-century preceding that (and the next two decades following it) is definitely worthy of empty time that needs to be used up. This week Criterion is releasing a new print of the French classic The Wages Of Fear on Blu-ray, and so that is a must-to-own.
According to Google “AI,” people who prefer older rather than newer films is due to such as factors as
Storytelling focus:
Classic films often prioritize strong narratives with well-developed characters, whereas some newer movies might prioritize spectacle over substance.
Acting quality:
Older films often featured acclaimed actors with refined acting styles, which can be perceived as more natural and impactful compared to modern acting trends
The 1970s introduced new, more "daring" kinds of filmmaking, like boundary-destroying “art” films from the likes of Walerian Borowczyk and Derek Jarman, those “sex comedies,” and most intriguingly the “political thriller” which was the natural successor of “film noir” genre. We need that latter kind of film more than ever these days to provide some idea to people about what is going on today in this country and the world, but a cowardly film industry refuses to make films that force people to face the truth.
Instead, what we see "personal" films which attempt to gas-light people into accepting their vision as “truth” or be accused of being “insensitive” or “sexist,” and that there is only one side to every story, and it is their side you must believe. But there is also a certain hypocrisy in Hollywood today that I find even more damning: cowardice and fear of informing reality to an audience from corporate pressure, or because it doesn’t “fit-in” with “contemporary” politics.
We saw this on Sunday’s Academy Awards show. This is what I saw: Conan O’Brien, shut your effing mouth. You are not “Mexican” and don’t pretend you know what the Mexican or the Hispanic audience is supposed to “think” about that racist and ignorant “musical” Emilia Perez made by a French director who has never been to Mexico and what he knows about it is what racist far-right politicians and the ignorant mainstream media—both “liberal” and right-wing—“interpret” it as without reporting about the the violence there that has its roots in America’s “culture,” both in its addiction to illegal drugs and guns.
Although an obscene 13 Oscar nominations resulted in only one win, that “win” wasn’t even for the music (I mean, it is a “musical”), but the Academy did something even more insulting to the Mexican audience: Zoe Saldana winning Best Supporting Actress.Yeah, the only reason she was in this movie was because she was the only actress with a “Hispanic” name the French director ever heard of who could “attract” an “American” audience to a Spanish-language film. The Academy members of course didn't see the lack of "subtly" or its cynicism, because, you know, this is the United States, not Mexico and the views of Mexicans about a film about their country doesn't count.
Go check-out Saldana's IMDB credits; she plays almost all black characters with “American”-sounding names. Her best-known credit is as Uhura from the Star Trek reboot, and that character is Kenyan whose name is Swahili for “freedom.” Yeah, I know, there were slaves brought over from Africa by the Spanish (and French and Portuguese) who because of their long tenure are Hispanic and most speak Spanish. But what made it hard to take about her "win" was that Saldana's character was essentially the only "good" Mexican in it, and apparently the only "good" one is black, a near invisible percent of the population? That might "work" for the U.S. audience, but its insulting to those who actually live there, especially indigenous peoples who face real discrimination.
But if they are virtually invisible in Mexico, that is a fact that the director of Emilia Perez realized too late to recast the role of Rita, he just made her an “immigrant” from the Dominic Republic, which is absurd because that country is one of the more prosperous in that region, so why would she want to leave there and go to Mexico with all that violence (Saldana's parents were Dominican, and they preferred to move to the U.S. instead)? It would have made more “sense” for her to be from neighboring Haiti, but they don’t speak Spanish there. Given that the director only cast one Mexican actor/actress of any import in the film, it was simply an act of pure laziness.
But it didn’t get much better. Hollywood and filmmakers still refuse to address the Hispanic immigrant experience or the issues they face both in their home countries, no thanks to U.S. policies and deportation of U.S.-bred gang members—and in the violence they face here from Gestapo thugs in ICE uniforms. We are told that instead of targeting the “worst” criminals, ICE is now invading farm fields, and that 30 percent of those detained in Guantanamo are not the “worst of the worst” but have committed no crimes at all, unless being from Venezuela is a “crime.”
Instead, we have yet another immigrant tale from yesteryear about “good” European immigrants in The Brutalist (Adrien Brody won his second best actor Oscar for this), but the “big” winner was a film hardly anyone even heard of, Anora. This film was about another white immigrant enclave, that of the Russians, which I found to be in rather poor “taste." The Russian immigrant community in this country is insular and prejudiced (of course so is the Indian community in general); once I was sitting in a Laundromat when noticed a “yellow pages” phone book on a table, entirely in the Russian language.
Organized crime by Russian gangs in this country, according to the FBI, “involves murder, extortion, auto theft, weapons smuggling, narcotics trafficking, prostitution, counterfeiting currency, and fraud.” While here and there some of that is “suggested” in Anora (although mainly the prostitution part), the hypocrisy cannot be overlooked: these are “good” Russian immigrants (because they are “white”), and you know if these characters were transposed into Hispanics, there would be a very different “take” on the subject matter. The title character in this film is a “sex worker” by “choice” and not “trafficked,” and not all of the male characters are sex-crazed, female-haters only there to “abuse” her.
Like contemporary “music,” I don’t pay too much attention to contemporary films. I might add a few to my collection if there is a sliver of interest; but even if I do actually watch them (like The Substance or Poor Things) it is more due to an “interest” on how story-telling has devolved over time in favor of—what was that, “spectacle”—and to shoe-horn in personal politics meant to gaslight half the audience. If I do like one of the more recent films, it is because they are (slight) improvements on their predecessors, at least “look” wise; that would include Netflix’s recent revisitings of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Pedro Paramo, and the “updating” of Nosferatu. I might even take the time here to review a "new" film like 2018's The Kindergarten Teacher which has the courage to address the reality of this world that is
not only "incorrect," but a “brave” effort to examine how special talents of countless people can fall between the cracks through being ignored, uncultivated, or simply falling into the abyss of the unknown because they exist in a world where there are also countless, talentless superstars-in-their-own-minds who have the good fortune of knowing the right people, or being “telegenic.” But it is also a film where people refuse to recognize the fact that the reason they are "nowhere" is because they don't have "talent."
These days, I don’t know if Academy voters are succumbing to gaslighting from pressure groups, want to appear to be “with the times,” or simply because there just isn’t a lot of “good” films out there. I certainly don’t trust film critics any more than I do music “critics,” since they only can compare the “relative” quality of a not very “musical” product. As for the “judging” of what is “good” today in films, it’s been a long time since the Oscars was an influence on my purchasing habit.
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