These days, first time filmmakers are making works of true
strength and originality. The music video school of direction is making movies
so stylish that surpassing
them would lead to incomprehensability. It seams as though tomorrow’s writers
and directors have very little chance to distinguish themselves from the masses
of post-Tarantino, super-fancy movies. Is there any way to be something new
without reinventing the entire film industry? Must we make avant-garde insanity
just to stand out?
–REJ Bach
At first, I thought you were being sarcastic, but on second reading I guess
you really are a fan of current cinema. I am too. I think it’s an exciting
time to be making, and watching, movies.
Every few months I find myself sitting on panels where an audience member
asks a "question" that is really just an excuse to say that nobody
knows how to make movies anymore. (Hint to future audience members: just because
you say "Don’t you agree?" at the end doesn’t turn a polemic into
a question.) I try to be polite and talk about how a younger generation is
used to an accellerated speed of storytelling, and doesn’t need to have the
dots connected as much, but my true instinct is to tell them to shove it. Yes,
Hollywood is making a lot of bad movies, but Hollywood has always made bad
movies. You’re just remembering the CITIZEN KANE’s and forgetting the TARZAN
AND THE TROLL PEOPLE’s.
Where I disagree with you, REJ, is whether we’ve reached any kind of zenith
in storytelling or stylishness. For all the flashy techniques we’ve seen, there’s
a thousand more that haven’t been invented, and the backlash against some of
the current trends will likely lead to other new ideas. For example, the bullet-time
effect in THE MATRIX has been played to death, but in fact it was only one
application of a much more important concept: camera movement doesn’t need
to be constrained to temporal reality. The next wave of filmmakers will be
able to take the concept further, and find new ways to visualize impossible
things.
In terms of writing, "post-Tarantino" is a poor catch-all for storytelling
that seems to break the normal mold. While it’s true that PULP FICTION had
a big influence on a generation of young filmmakers, a lot of the ideas we
credit to Tarantino had been percolating for years in less commercially successful
films. I believe they would have found their way into a hit sooner or later.
(And if I were Tarantino, I’d hate to hear that we were living in a post-Tarantino
era. Come on. The guy’s still in his 30’s.)
I’m not a gambler, but I’ll bet every cent I have that some enterprising writer/director
will be able to identify the new ideas bubbling under the surface and incorporate
them into the next revolutionary mega-blockbuster. It’s the safest wager I
could make.