The "Cannes Death Rattle"

[From a conversation-in-progress at Confabulation, about an article and other commentary on the "Cannes death rattle."]

Usually I'm the first to jump on a pessimists' bandwagon, but I honestly don't think the art film/film festival situation is as dire as all that -- or, at least, not more dire than it has been for a while. Multiplex box offices are simply no longer a place where the majority of films we care about make a significant portion of the money that they do eke out. It is too bad for the "large screen experience," there is no doubt of that, but in an era where advanced segments of the world technological market are watching movies on cell phones, as in Japan and Korea, we probably need to re-calibrate our sense of what a cinematic experience is. Television sets are where 90%+ of movie experiences are going to take place. (At least the television sets got larger, although I'm not taking advantage of that yet, still watching everything on my 17 inch laptop.) In my eyes, the life of a "movie" now starts with the DVD release; the theatrical release period is at most good for a little advance buzz, as the festivals are.

Cannes is still the gold standard for festivals: Cannes will be going strong five, ten years from now, I feel certain. Everyone is just in a grumpy mood this year, understandably. I'm can't believe I'm the one telling people to cheer up!