Hollywood Forever
On the confusing, sometimes futile feeling of wanting to make feature films in 2023
For as long as I’ve been interested in making feature films, I’ve carried with me the fear that movies as I know them — as I’ve loved them — won’t be around by the time I’m ready to join the party. Part of it is just a classic case of lovesickness: I’m in love with movies, therefore I fear losing them. But this anxiety is also fueled by my knowledge of the film business as one that has been constantly changing, shifting, and evolving for the entirety of its history. Not that I disapprove of progress, if that’s the word; the relentless evolution of motion pictures is one of the things that I love most about them. But my love for that process is almost exclusively — and rather romantically — tied to events of the distant past. I’m thrilled by tales of innovation from ’60s Paris or ’70s Hollywood, yet when I consider the developments of the present — which are deeply significant — they seem to me on the one hand lame, on the other dystopian. Apples and oranges, or simply a view compromised by rose-tinted glasses?
Before I wrestle fully with that question, let’s take a brief look at movie history through the lens of change. Out of necessity, movies — and the business that sells them — have evolved significantly every ten to twenty years. The goal here will be to see where we stand today, in the broad context of the entire history of the medium.
