Neil Calloway argues that the films being shown at Cannes mark a turning point in cinema…
Ten years ago Netflix were a cool little company that would mail you DVDs every month, even providing a little envelope so you could return Casino Royale before they sent you Pan’s Labyrinth. If someone had told you that in 2017 they’d be making movies, and making movies so well that they would be debuting at the Cannes Film Festival you’d probably laugh. The again, if they told you that the reality TV show host who shaved Vince McMahon’s head at that year’s WrestleMania would be the US President, you’d think they were insane.
Now of course, it’s hard to imagine the entertainment scene without Netflix and Amazon as producers as well as suppliers. People who used to talk about the “BRIC” (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries emerging as forces to be reckoned with now talk about “FANG”, meaning Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google; online companies that an increasing number of people increasingly rely on. Netflix is obviously the odd one out; they don’t make as much money as the others and they don’t dominate their sector, not yet at least. However, like HBO in the first few years of the 21st Century, their shows are currently setting the zeitgeist, and everyone else is scrambling to catch up. You think Kevin Spacey is more proud of Nine Lives than he is House of Cards? I doubt it.
By having films at Cannes, Netflix and Amazon are signalling their intent, and their arrival as major players in the industry. Anyone can make a film, and anyone get it out there with on demand releases nowadays. It’s even possible to get your movie screened at Cannes; when Trading Places producer Aaron Russo made the conspiracy minded (or completely crazy, if you’re feeling uncharitable) documentary America: Freedom to Fascism (a film which takes issue with the US tax system, and not at all inspired by Russo’s own battles with the IRS), he claimed that it had received a standing ovation at Cannes. In reality Russo just showed the movie on a screen he’d put up on the beach at Cannes. Hardly the same thing as being screened in competition.
That won’t be needed for Noah Baumbach’s new film (released by Netflix) or Wonderstruck, the new Todd Haynes film, which Amazon have produced. The French Exhibitors Guild may be protesting the inclusion of films that will probably bypass the cinema, but a French union will always find something to protest against and they’ll find themselves on the wrong side of history by complaining.
Being shown in competition at Cannes is one of the most prestigious honours a film can get; making money is great, but the seal of approval from high minded, sophisticated European cinephiles gives you something billions at the box office can’t.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
Originally published April 16, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
