October 9th, 2007, 10 Comments »
Last week on CBC’s Q, I listened to a pretty fascinating interview (MP3) with cinematic auteur and hero of snobby cineastes Peter Greenaway. Greenaway was on to promote his latest film, Nightwatching (here’s an extended trailer).
I quite like Q host Jian Ghomeshi, but he was definitely fighting above his weight. Greenaway lectured him on a number of topics, including the ‘death of cinema’. I agreed with much of what Greenaway said, so I transcribed a few bits (only transcribe opinions you concur with, I always say):
Cinema now, with the laptop generation, Generation X, is really to do with an interactive, multimedia world and cinema can’t be that. Cinema cannot be democratic–it cannot create multiple endings. You can’t interface with it in any satisfactory way.
So, I think if we’re going to excite imaginations with the potentiality of this grand audio-visual experience, we’re going to find new ways of doing it. I would argue that the ‘Casablanca’ syndrome–that cut-and-dry bedtime story for adults–is really finished. It doesn’t really have a place anymore.
That’s not to say the screen is going to disappear. I have a mobile phone in my pocket, and I suspect you have too. And it has a screen.
And here’s another good bit:
We’re now all lateral thinkers, and certainly we are encyclopedists. We are browsers, we are laptop users. So we have to refashion this media to be relevant to contemporary imaginations.
I’m fond of saying that, before too long, going to the cinema will join the ballet and the opera as dated, niche entertainments that appeal to a few. Mr. Greenaway just said it better.
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September 19th, 2007, 2 Comments »
I’ve been meaning to reference this editorial written about the baroque and hilariously dated regulations (PDF) for Maltese movie theatres. Some laws that are still on the books:
- “A trained fireman licensed by the Commissioner of Police, or in his absence a member of the Police Force detailed to act as such by the Commissioner of Police, shall be in attendance at all the performances.” Man, that’s a lot of free movies for firemen and police officers.
- “The exit and emergency exit lanterns shall be illuminated by means of candles or paraffin lamps, the lanterns to be made entirely of non-combustible material.”
- “Cinematographs shall close not later than twelve midnight.” That’s impractical timing, but I mostly include it for the awesome term ‘cinematographs’.
- “It is prohibited to introduce dogs into the auditorium or to keep or allow to be kept any dog therein.” That one’s still applicable, but I gather parrots, hamsters and ocelots are okay?
Here’s the most important one: “an interval shall in no case be held during the showing of the main feature film without the written permission of the Commissioner of Police.” This implies that intervals ought to be the exception, not the rule. And I doubt that theatres really have written permission for intervals in every movie. I’ve complained about the absurd intermissions in Maltese cinemas before. As it turns out, the law’s on my side.
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July 23rd, 2007, 9 Comments »
I missed this a couple of months back, but Scotiabank recently bought the naming rights to three Canadian movie theatres, including the Paramount on Burrard Street. I believe that’s a photo of them disassembling the old Famous Players sign. The move is associated with a new loyalty card program:
“Cineplex approached Scotiabank about naming rights of some theatres and our response to it really was ‘interesting, but we need to have a reason to be there’.…We determined that we had some good common interests. Cineplex had a need to build a database and change the business model they had…and we had a need at Scotiabank to find a way to reach younger people–and by young people I mean 14-to-30-year-olds–in a much more relevant way.”
As I’ve said before, I’m not a believer in naming rights. It’s a particularly bad move when the building has already existed under another name. Nobody’s calling the golf ball in False Creek “The Telus World of Science”, and everyone will still refer to the cinema on Burrard Street as “The Paramount”.
It’s interesting that naming rights are being applied to smaller and smaller structures. How long before the local corner store gets renamed to “The Budweiser Cash and Carry”?
Coincidentally, a Coca Cola rep recently swept through our little village and dispensed free Coca-Cola-themed signs to the local bar and one of the grocery stores. Just a variation on the naming rights theme, I guess.
I read about this renaming project via this very angry rant. That dude needs to move.
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June 20th, 2007, 2 Comments »
But hyperlinks are the Esperanto of the Internet. Courtesy of e-commerce-blog.de, go visit www.bodyscare.com and click around a bit. Nice bit o’ surprise marketing there, if they’re promoting it correctly on the streets of Rome.
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June 4th, 2007, 11 Comments »
While en route from Gozo to Budapest, we stayed overnight in Malta’s capital city of Valetta. We also took the opportunity to watch Pirates of the Caribbean in the local very modern and pleasant multiplex.
It’s modern in all respects but one–there’s an intermission in the film. I’d read this online a few months ago, and didn’t really believe that it was true.
And yet, during a tense scene between Kiera Knightley and Chow Yun Fat (that’s not a spoiler as far as I’m concerned), while Kiera (who’s beautiful, but always looks like she has too many teeth for her mouth) was in mid-line, the film stopped. The screen displayed one groovy graphic that read “Intermission”, and most of the audience wandered outside for…what…cigarettes, refreshments and the toilets.
In the middle of a scene. The intermission seemed more or less randomly selected. Or, maybe it’s stipulated that it’s exactly two-thirds of the way through the film. In any case, it struck me as utterly ridiculous.
There are plenty of times when you shouldn’t judge another culture’s practices, but this ain’t one of them. Nearly all films are created to be viewed in one sitting, uninterrupted (the only exception I can think of is Kenneth Brannagh’s four-hour Hamlet). I’d have no complaints if filmmakers planned on intermissions the way playwrights do, but they don’t.
I must ask some of my Maltese colleagues what the deal is with this practice, and whether they prefer it.
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