GUARDIAN
The uneasy relationship between the streaming giants and the big-screen devotees
There is no doubt who has the bragging rights in the world of movies in 2018. And that is Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of the all-conquering streaming platform Netflix. Netflix, Netflix, Netflix: the word dominated movie conversations this year like a sneezing fit. Earlier, Netflix found itself cast as the bad guy, the anti-cinema philistine whose product was rejected by the Cannes film festival, under pressure from French cinema chains, and opinion-formers found themselves broadly in agreement, arguing that the big screen was all-important, and that people who consented to watch films on laptops and tablets were despicable, soulless content-zombie freaks. The objectors had forgotten, perhaps, that the first time they watched films was on their humble telly at home, and that was where they learned to love cinema.
But Netflix took its films to the Venice film festival, which snapped them up. There, Netflix gave us the Coen brothers’ bangingly good The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; it gave us Roma, which many people believe to be the best film of the year. And, to put the exquisite seal on its victory over Cannes, Netflix presented its editorial reconstruction of Orson Welles’s “lost” film, The Other Side of the Wind. That’s right: a new film by Orson Welles! Courtesy of Netflix! It doesn’t get more impeccably cinephile than that. Surely Netflix is now the good guy? Not quite. Once these films emerged in the UK in the autumn, cinema exhibitors were furious that Netflix had set up a deal with just one chain to show its flagship Roma. Again, Netflix was cast as the wrecker, suppressing the big-screen identity of its own film. Even Cuarón was tweeting that people should see it in cinemas.
To which we can only say … well, yes, but Cuarón consented to the Netflix deal. Streaming on digital platforms is what Netflix does. This is the commercial decision that Cuarón made. Netflix got his movie wide distribution, provided some cinema showings and festival eligibility. As a critic and filmgoer, I can only say that Roma got a more widespread cinema showing than many superb independent films. It is a fact that nothing will replace the big-screen experience; it is also a fact that many outstanding films are really only accessible on DVD or streaming services, hence the anguish that greeted news that Warner Bros was to discontinue its FilmStruck streaming service for rare, classic and arthouse titles. Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Barry Jenkins, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Rian Johnson and Christopher Nolan campaigned for it to be brought back. All in vain, although the Criterion Collection is to launch its own streaming channel next year.