David Lynch Not Optimistic About Making Another Movie, Says Current State Of The Industry Is "Depressing"

Quote :

"It's a very depressing picture. With alternative cinema – any sort of cinema that isn't mainstream – you're fresh out of luck in terms of getting theatre space and having people come to see it. Even if I had a big idea, the world is different now," the filmmaker recently told The Independent. "Unfortunately, my ideas are not what you'd call commercial, and money really drives the boat these days. So I don't know what my future is. I don't have a clue what I'm going to be able to do in the world of cinema."

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/david-lynch-not-optimistic-about-making-another-movie-says-current-state-of-the-industry-is-depressing-20130624

Apologies for the depressing read.

It's too bad we might never see another film by Lynch, but the idea of him returning to TV in some form on HBO or another cable network sounds great enough that I don't see a reason to be depressed. As Harms said, the quality of TV has superseded cinema lately.

I am not always Lynch's biggest fan, but he is right that TV is where it's at now for creative storytelling.

This may be good news for my digestive system - Inland Empire caused me to throw up in back row of The Prince Charles. Fortunately, I was one of only two people in the place and I'm sure the other viewer thought it was a piece of performance art. Which it was, in a way.

Hell, I'd like to see him do a TV show. The industry is changing, but I don't know if I'd call it entirely depressing if there is still good product. American TV has seen a Renaissance.

I've tried repeatedly to get through INLAND, which was a blind buy for me (and I thought a sure thing given that I like or love all of his other stuff after ERASERHEAD), but I just can't get anywhere with it.

I think the low-grade video imagery is the biggest hindrance, because to some degree, the medium really IS the message, and in that case, the message is 'to save your eyes, burn me upon receipt.'

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Hell, I'd like to see him do a TV show.  The industry is changing, but I don't know if I'd call it entirely depressing if there is still good product.  American TV has seen a Renaissance.

I believe we are past that point already.

The newer shows are all in what I would call the "B-movie" TV category: The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The Americans.

The last two shows that I would consider part of the so called Golden Era are Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire (and even Boardwalk is a bit of a stretch).

Well, hopefully we'll get some great shows.  It's certainly better than where TV dramas were in the past.  And I think the atmosphere is right for great shows to happen.  In the mean time, to sorta repeat what I just said, the bar is resting higher than it was.

Documentary filmmaking is where it's at right now, not television.

Salomé wrote:

The newer shows are all in what I would call the "B-movie" TV category: The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The Americans.

I'd say The 'Mericans would be lucky to be seen at the same party with those other two.

Salomé wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Hell, I'd like to see him do a TV show.  The industry is changing, but I don't know if I'd call it entirely depressing if there is still good product.  American TV has seen a Renaissance.

I believe we are past that point already.

The newer shows are all in what I would call the "B-movie" TV category: The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The Americans.

The last two shows that I would consider part of the so called Golden Era are Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire (and even Boardwalk is a bit of a stretch).

This may be the case as far as network television is concerned, but the TV landscape is still changing quite a bit. It's hard to say what the effects of Netflix's experimentation with television series will lead to, and I've heard it said that many big-name filmmakers are chomping at the bit to work on Netflix projects due to the enormous creative freedom Netflix offers.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Documentary filmmaking is where it's at right now, not television.

Perhaps, but documentary cinema has never really inspired me. I've always been more of a fiction guy than a non-fiction guy, and this applies to my taste in literature as much as it does to my taste in cinema.

CJB wrote:

Salomé wrote:

The newer shows are all in what I would call the "B-movie" TV category: The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The Americans.

I'd say The 'Mericans would be lucky to be seen at the same party with those other two.

They are categorized together because of their similar origins.

Where the quality dramas of the past decade largely recycled the movie genres that had dominated "serious" cinema (mob movies with The Sopranos, westerns with Deadwood, character-driven scifi with BSG), the second wave seems to focus on those genres that were always quite popular just outside of the mainstream (horror movies with The Walking Dead, sword & sorcery with Game of Thrones and spy thrillers with The Americans).
Hence why I would categorize them as B-movie TV.

As audiences fragment more cable television will become more commercial as they become more competitive. Mad Men probably wouldn't make it past a season were it to premiere today on the same network.

This could do with a split into a state of contemporary television drama tread.

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Documentary filmmaking is where it's at right now, not television.

Perhaps, but documentary cinema has never really inspired me. I've always been more of a fiction guy than a non-fiction guy, and this applies to my taste in literature as much as it does to my taste in cinema.

That's where we differ. I have equal time for both, if the subject matter and handling is compelling enough.

I'm a little less interested in docs now than in the past, and I think it is because you can just roll endlessly on digital, so catching the right moment is more a matter of endurance than inspired intuition. Somehow that diminishes it for me.

Talking about docs, I've heard lots of critical praise about THE ACT OF KILLING. Have yet to see it.

trevanian wrote:

I'm a little less interested in docs now than in the past, and I think it is because you can just roll endlessly on digital, so catching the right moment is more a matter of endurance than inspired intuition. Somehow that diminishes it for me.

Yeah, in a society drenched in digital surveillance--the era of YouTube--documentaries seem less... essential? Maybe that's the wrong word.

It's not so much the capture itself that interests me, more the sum of the documentary's parts. The bigger picture if you will.