Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron is often considered one of the nicest men in the industry, and a deserved Golden Globes winner last night for his work directing the acclaimed black-and-white Netflix original feature “Roma”.
In a rare moment of frustration though, he raised his voice and challenged a reporter backstage during his post-award win interview when he was asked about how some have expressed concerns that the success this awards season of “Roma” with its limited theatrical run and then immediate global streaming rollout marked “the death of independent cinema”. Cuaron responded tersely:
“My question to you is, how many theaters did you think that a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish and Mixteco, that is a drama without stars – how big did you think it would be as a conventional theatrical release? It was not a cosmetic release.
The movie opened more than a month ago and is still playing. That is rare for a foreign film. I think that is very unfair to say that. Why don’t you take the list of foreign films this year and compare the theatrical release to those things and for how long they’ve been playing. See how many are playing in 70 [millimeter.].”
Cuaron has often found himself asked about the debate of seeing “Roma” either on Netflix or the big screen, and he’s talked about the importance of both. He then talked some more about the difficulty of filmmaking in the current era and how getting any kind of distribution should be seen as a win:
I just [think] the discussion between Netflix and platforms in general should be over. I think those guys, platforms and theatrical, should go together and just realize that whatever they are doing to this discussion is hurting cinema. Something we must be very conscious of is that the theatrical experience has become very gentrified to one specific kind of product. Right now, it’s unquestionable that you have all these filmmakers, interesting filmmakers, doing film with different platforms because those platforms are not afraid of doing these films. And like ‘Roma,’ I just hope that many others have the theatrical release and greater theatrical releases that I have [had.]”
“Roma” is in select cinemas and on Netflix worldwide.
Source: Variety
