Jonathan Rosenbaum: DVDs As Legit As Movie Theaters

[Chicagoist]

Former Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has been as busy as ever since he "retired" from active duty at the paper. You could even say he's picked up the pace; a quick look at the Publications & Events page on his website will set your eyes a-swimming. A new essay, which will appear in expanded form as part of his forthcoming book Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia: Film Culture in Transition, examines how people's viewing habits have changed:

In the past, cinephilia as a collective experience and activity was almost entirely a matter of audiences experiencing films together, as part of the same crowd—or else, at the very least, comparing notes months later in paper publications. Today there’s a new kind of networking that’s based much less on people being in the same places at the same times and more on alerting other people to what’s available and where and how, and then reflecting on what’s seen and heard afterwards, with several others, via the Internet.

In other words, he acknowledges the plain and simple fact that audiences are now "consuming" more films outside a movie theater than ever before, and this change is here to stay. And he also concludes that in many cases, this is all for the good. He lists several films that are all but impossible to see in a movie theatre, yet easily obtainable online. Also, DVDs often offer better picture quality than available prints of many films (and naturally he singles out Criterion.)

Enriching the debate is Manohla Dargis, who writes that because film prints are so expensive, "distributors are also bypassing film, releasing digital movies into the marketplace. Exhibitors are also showing you movies digitally, though they might not tell you you’re paying $12.50 to watch a Blu-ray disc."

So what say you? Is it better to watch a movie in the theater, even if it is basically a projected DVD, or is watching at home an equal experience?






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