Martin Scorsese calls on theatres to “step up” to preserve cinematic experience

Martin Scorsese has called for theatres to preserve the traditional cinema-going experience.Appearing at a BFI London Film Festival press conference recently for his Netflix film, The Irishman, the iconic director doubled down on his comments comparing Marvel Comics superhero films as “theme parks” when asked if cinema needs to be redefined in the era of streaming.Speaking to Mirror Online and other outlets, Martin Scorsese said: “What streaming means and how that’s going to define a new form of cinema, I’m not sure. I thought for a while that maybe long-form TV is cinema, it’s not. It simply isn’t.“It’s a different viewing experience. You can get three episodes, two, four, ten. One, one week, second episode the second week. What has to be protected is the singular experience of experiencing a picture, ideally with an audience.“But there’s room for so many others now, and in so many other ways, and there’s going to be crossovers, completely.“The value of a film that’s a theme park film, for example, Marvel-type pictures, where theatres become amusement parks, that’s a different experience. As I said earlier, it’s not cinema, it’s something else. Whether you go for that or not, but it is something else and we shouldn’t be invaded by it.“The Raging Bull filmmaker said responsibility laid with theatre owners to keep “narrative film” alive.“That’s a big issue and we need the theatre owners to step up for that and to allow theatres to show films that are narrative films, and narrative film can be one long take for three hours, two now,” he added. “It doesn’t have to be a conventional beginning, middle, and end.”The prominent director of Goodfellas and Taxi Driver appeared alongside his frequent collaborator Robert De Niro and the actor’s The Irishman co-star Al Pacino at the event.The Irishman follows the criminal life of Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a truck driver who gets involved with Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and his Pennsylvania crime family.The film sees Sheeran climb the ranks to become a top hitman, and how he also goes to work for the fiery Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) – a powerful Teamster tied to organized crime.The BFI London Film Festival 2019 is showing The Irishman as its Closing Gala film.The Irishman will release in select UK cinemas on November 8, 2019, before being released on Netflix on November 27, 2019.– Courtesy: Mirror 

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