At the Las Vegas expo, Oliver Stone, Michael
Mann and Baz Luhrmann talk Blu-ray, 3-D and
other technology, the integrity of classic films,
and new ways of watching movies.Reporting from Las Vegas — — At the
International Consumer Electronics Show, the
massive annual expo in Las Vegas devoted to the
hard sell of high tech, it's just assumed that the
next big thing is always better than what came
before. That's why director Oliver Stone
managed to sound lonely in a crowded room
Saturday when he suggested that, for cinema,
the future just doesn't look so bright.
"Watching my children and friends look at a
computer screen with a movie — with the lights
on, with interruptions, trying to multitask — is
very depressing to people like me," Stone said at
a filmmaker panel discussion on the Las Vegas
Convention Center floor. "Now, my daughter had
[a movie on] a phone the other day. I found it,
literally, sad. I feel like we are the last of the
Mohicans, in a way."
Stone made that fading-frontier analogy for the
benefit of director Michael Mann, his generational
peer who was sitting beside him and who had
just shown the crowd an especially vivid
sequence from the new Blu-ray edition of his
1992 epic, "The Last of the Mohicans."Mann chuckled, but Stone wasn't smiling. As
Hollywood moves further into the era of
portability and pixels, the "Sunset Blvd." words of
Norma Desmond spring to mind: "I am big. It's
the pictures that got small."
The panel, which also included "Moulin Rouge!"
director Baz Luhrmann, was a bit of an anomaly
at the hardware-obsessed event. The discussion,
organized by Fox Home Entertainment and
moderated by this reporter, was focused on
high-definition Blu-ray discs.
While all three of the famous perfectionists
expressed enthusiasm for the format — Mann
said "Blu-ray does a better job [than DVD] by a
factor of about 12 or 13" — they voiced less
certainty and even flashes of anxiety when the
talk turned to other technology topics.
Luhrmann, 48, said he worries about the integrity
of classic films when modern technology adds
too much clarity to the images — for example,
when the wires holding the flying monkeys can
be seen in new versions of "The Wizard of Oz."
And Mann, who spent months preparing
"Mohicans" for last year's Blu-ray version, noted
that despite his affection for the format, he could
guess that it might last eight more years.
Still, Luhrmann said he is "fantastically optimistic"
about technology in general and eager to see
where 3-D leads to as stereoscopic approaches
and gear improve. Backstage, he spoke with
crackling enthusiasm about his investigation into
3-D for an upcoming adaption of "The Great
Gatsby." Mann also said he would like to see what
3-D might bring to a carefully constructed
dialogue drama as opposed to the action
spectacle films that dominate the sector now.
The directors were part of a slightly greater
emphasis on content at CES, but gear and gizmos
really still ruled the four-day event that came to a
close Sunday. More than 2,700 technology
companies came to sell themselves to 140,000
hard-wired professionals from 80 countries.
Computer tablets, smart appliances and Ford's
first electric vehicle were the talk of the show,
whereas the entertainment sector seemed to
have less eye-popping offerings than last year,
when 3-D TV was a hot topic.
Although more and more entertainment is
moving toward digital delivery, Stone said the
Blu-ray format may be able to extend its life if
people consider it a collectible.
"This is about film preservation … it's the last
hardware, the best of the last hardware. There
won't be any other hardware now," he said. "It's
going to be on a digital phone or on a computer
or on a TV screen."
Source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-ces-film-directors-20110110,0,1367170.story
Mann and Baz Luhrmann talk Blu-ray, 3-D and
other technology, the integrity of classic films,
and new ways of watching movies.Reporting from Las Vegas — — At the
International Consumer Electronics Show, the
massive annual expo in Las Vegas devoted to the
hard sell of high tech, it's just assumed that the
next big thing is always better than what came
before. That's why director Oliver Stone
managed to sound lonely in a crowded room
Saturday when he suggested that, for cinema,
the future just doesn't look so bright.
"Watching my children and friends look at a
computer screen with a movie — with the lights
on, with interruptions, trying to multitask — is
very depressing to people like me," Stone said at
a filmmaker panel discussion on the Las Vegas
Convention Center floor. "Now, my daughter had
[a movie on] a phone the other day. I found it,
literally, sad. I feel like we are the last of the
Mohicans, in a way."
Stone made that fading-frontier analogy for the
benefit of director Michael Mann, his generational
peer who was sitting beside him and who had
just shown the crowd an especially vivid
sequence from the new Blu-ray edition of his
1992 epic, "The Last of the Mohicans."Mann chuckled, but Stone wasn't smiling. As
Hollywood moves further into the era of
portability and pixels, the "Sunset Blvd." words of
Norma Desmond spring to mind: "I am big. It's
the pictures that got small."
The panel, which also included "Moulin Rouge!"
director Baz Luhrmann, was a bit of an anomaly
at the hardware-obsessed event. The discussion,
organized by Fox Home Entertainment and
moderated by this reporter, was focused on
high-definition Blu-ray discs.
While all three of the famous perfectionists
expressed enthusiasm for the format — Mann
said "Blu-ray does a better job [than DVD] by a
factor of about 12 or 13" — they voiced less
certainty and even flashes of anxiety when the
talk turned to other technology topics.
Luhrmann, 48, said he worries about the integrity
of classic films when modern technology adds
too much clarity to the images — for example,
when the wires holding the flying monkeys can
be seen in new versions of "The Wizard of Oz."
And Mann, who spent months preparing
"Mohicans" for last year's Blu-ray version, noted
that despite his affection for the format, he could
guess that it might last eight more years.
Still, Luhrmann said he is "fantastically optimistic"
about technology in general and eager to see
where 3-D leads to as stereoscopic approaches
and gear improve. Backstage, he spoke with
crackling enthusiasm about his investigation into
3-D for an upcoming adaption of "The Great
Gatsby." Mann also said he would like to see what
3-D might bring to a carefully constructed
dialogue drama as opposed to the action
spectacle films that dominate the sector now.
The directors were part of a slightly greater
emphasis on content at CES, but gear and gizmos
really still ruled the four-day event that came to a
close Sunday. More than 2,700 technology
companies came to sell themselves to 140,000
hard-wired professionals from 80 countries.
Computer tablets, smart appliances and Ford's
first electric vehicle were the talk of the show,
whereas the entertainment sector seemed to
have less eye-popping offerings than last year,
when 3-D TV was a hot topic.
Although more and more entertainment is
moving toward digital delivery, Stone said the
Blu-ray format may be able to extend its life if
people consider it a collectible.
"This is about film preservation … it's the last
hardware, the best of the last hardware. There
won't be any other hardware now," he said. "It's
going to be on a digital phone or on a computer
or on a TV screen."
Source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-ces-film-directors-20110110,0,1367170.story
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