Laura said: Try to find a Straub/Huillet film on dvd (or even on
videotape) & see how far you get.
Nowhere Im afraid. Film, video and DVD distribution is a nightmare. Unlike
say literary or philosphical or scientific society far too many of the works
of cinematic society are effectively forbidden to most of us. We confront
cinematic culture as a kind of wild alien implacable force. The problem is
not that critics of popular films want to say what others should watch, nor
that criticism of popular film is elitist. Indeed serious critique for
popular film is widely practiced. It is that one simply cannot watch a
Staub/Huillet film or many other films that fall under the categories of
art-house, non-English language, classic let alone difficult, or
experiemental. In this, cinema is not truly popular.
Further, Hollywood (or US) cinema (despite its many wonderful works) quite
limits generic conventions, subject matter, target audiences, the gender of
its actors, etc. That may be OK. It may just be US culture. And many
fimmakers manage to play its games with great style or cunning and produce
good films. Sunset Boulevarde, Sullivans Travels, The Player and Mulholland
Drive are all good films of this culture and about this culture. Furthemore
many of its films can be redeemed by reading them against the grain or
treating them as fascinating found objects. Nevertheless its mighty
distribution system ensures that we a not free players in what we watch and
that filmmakers are not free players in what they produce. Rather than call
the cinema goers *democratic kings* I would call them fairly powerless
market players.
Ross
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