David Thomson: Ozu v Avatar – this really is what cinema has come down to | Film | guardian.co.uk - A great essay on the failings of contemporary cinema to deal with real issues that affect us, real people. Thomson longs for a time when people would seek out the work of someone like Ozu because it speaks to them, because it deals with reality as most people live it.
I am reminded of a description a friend of Werner Herzog’s once gave of his films: “the miraculous in the mundane.” It would seem that mainstream cinema has forgotten the mundane altogether, and so has discarded the raw material with which we find common ground with each other. I thought Cameron’s Avatar was beautiful, but its beauty, its story, and its messages are lost in a kind of selfish pride, as if the film shouts into your eyes, “Look how amazing I am!” Cinema can be anything, but it’s due for a realist movement any day now.
