the new jia zhang-ke has made me sad. not the film, mind you, as it is excellent and jia's most accessible work to date. no, what has me bummed was the screening. the turnout was pretty good and i am not complaining about that per se. the attendance of around 100-125 people was pretty awesome for an art center(not megaplex) screening of a chinese film shot by a dude who doesn't get state funding like other more traditional(martial arts/geisha) film makers in his country, but still, the demographics within this cross section of viewers were a little bit sad.
i was shocked by the sparseness of people my age. me, mike scott and his friend peter who he dragged along made up roughly half of all the people under 40, as i did an unscientific poll of fresh faces as they exited the theater. i counted six youthful glances counting our own and that is just sad.
the middle aged people who grew up in the 70's with the incredible domestic cinematic output came out in droves, as they seem to still have some adventurous tastes when deciding what to screen. i was very impressed with their turnout and even more impressed that many of them stayed for the lecture afterwards. that i cannot say the same for my generation and those gens younger than mine makes me sad.
film culture is lost on the youth of our city. there isn't even an effort to see non-hollywood/non-mainstream indies these days. nobody goes off campus for a little slice of different anymore. i commend peter(even though he admitted he "didn't get it"...that's okay) for having the adventurous spirit necessary as i find most young people have never even dared to check out a non-martial arts film from china, like jia's still life, as i guess they are too busy waiting in line for the new batman or star wars. there's nothing wrong with those, just mix in a little spice every now and again and go see something that seems off the radar. peter did. and he sat patiently through it and he earned my respect in a way that is not sad.
i recommend all my readers take a cue from peter. go forth and find something that isn't apatow or isn't even in english(gasp!) otherwise, hollywood will be all one in this city knows. now that would be sad.
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When we played Flight of the Red Balloon, every time I saw someone my age who should be seeing the Hou, they bought a ticket to Hancock. We did do more business on Flight than I expected. This was because it received an enthusiastic review in the paper. So everybody around age 60 who should have been seeing When Did You Last See Your Father because they would have liked it were seeing and hating Flight of the Red Balloon instead.
If I hadn't already seen Still Life, I would have definitely been in attendance.
I wish I got to watch the new Apatow Bromance with you - bummed you couldn't make it the other night. I loved it, and think it would have been best viewed with your entourage of bros.
You've inspired me to watch "Abre los Ojos" as I go sleep. And maybe I'll put in "Lola Rennt" tomorrow.
shane, if you have already seen those films, which i believe you have, then you completely missed the point. try the princess and the warrior, tykwer's follow up to lola. it is more thematically and narratively challenging and ultimately a more rewarding experience.
go watch something that you have no idea about. be adventurous, break out of "the box" that's what i'm talking about.
Already seen "The Princess and the Warrior" watched the screening at Castleton Arts many moons ago.
Sorry, at 1:00am, I don't know many art houses I can run watch a new movie at. I was resorting to my DVDs.
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