I wouldn’t have expected the following sentiment from a three-time Academy Award winner, but Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC has never been one to stagnate in the past. His statement is drawn from a June 2023 interview conducted by the Association française des directrices et directeurs de la photographie cinématographique, otherwise known as the AFC. As always, he is insightful, forward-looking and in his way, optimistic. I wish we’d hear more nuanced observations like this one from a wider sample of the industry…
“I’m not sure that seeing a film in a theater is so crucial today. After all, ever since the first cave paintings, and then engraving, painting on wood and canvas…there were so many technological evolutions in the representation of art that that’s what is always at the center of our debates. In a word, only the technology changes, but the ideas don’t. Watching a film on one’s tablet or on one’s LCD screen at home is still watching a film. And filmmakers will always need to tell stories! Of course, the emotion in a theater, and the collective unconscious, are irreplaceable, but you have to admit that smartphones have profoundly changed the relationship that people – and not just young people – have to images. We have to accept it, and it’s a question of education. Access to images, culture, knowledge, is now practically instant. It’s just that it requires more pugnacity, more motivation and more time to go past the simplistic summaries that are available everywhere in order to extract the gold you’re in search of.”
When you see a photo of the Mona Lisa on the Internet, or, The Last Supper, or, a Caravaggio, or, a Rembrandt, etc, or, even a Jackson Pollack photo on the Internet, rather than seeing a Pollack in person at LACMA with its grand canvas, and feel all the emotional textures of the brush, why wouldn’t any human deprive themselves of making an effort to experience that… What Storaro stated is 100% true, we cannot deny the evolution of generational ways… But it is still the responsibility of certain people and groups to keep the flame alive in terms of the mentality of ‘art’… Cinema is the highest form of art because it encompasses all the forms of art blending on to one canvas – one vision – one story! To see and feel this experience in a dark room feeling the spiritual energy of the people around you – breathing, laughing, crying, screaming, is no comparison to feeling this on a flat screen at home with lawnmowers rumbling outside, dogs barking, phones ringing, etc… We must make an effort to preserve this emotional experience that is becoming extinct right before our eyes! It’s the only thing we have left as a human – to love and feel – all in its grandest and tactile way…
Hey Crescenzo! You are so right…the cinema experience is a treasure. What we need are better movies with which to bring the crowds back!
Wow! How profound. Definitely moved my thinking about this. I think he’s clear that the esxperience of seeing a film in a theater with an audience is unique; but not be so stuck in that mindset that one doesn’t puts their head in the sand and ignore the realities of how stories are being consumed today.
Hey Richard…
As an Academy Member, I have seen dozens from this year for ‘consideration’… Several wonderful heartfelt film – but NONE of which are shot here!!! Shame on us… And I will not point any fingers…
Hear, hear! es verdad!
I recently experienced a wonderful exhibit in Tucson on the career of
animator Ray Harryhausen. Most of his incredible storyboard drawings and models from his movies were on display. I saw a handful of these films in my
youth without appreciating the technical skill that went into making these
films. But then how or why would you even care when you’re young and naive. A few weeks ago I was watching tv and by chance Jason and the Argonaut movie appeared. Had no idea I would be seeing a few weeks later Talos the bronze animated character on display.
Harryhausen was such an incredible gifted artist of stop-motion Dynamation
effects.
I can just imagine the impact this movie made on the viewer in a darkened
theater in 1963. The only way to see movies.
Ken – Like so many other kids at the time, I waited for TV showings of Jason and the Argonauts with great enthusiasm. Ray Harryhausen gave a presentation at the ASC Clubhouse a number of years ago, which I was fortunate to attend. He was an interesting guy and had no respect for modern digital effects. I think he was right. Even though some of it looks cheesy to us now, his work has an undeniable human touch. It’s the polar opposite of AI…