The film that is definitely NOT coming to DVD or Netflix (and probably not your local cinema either)
Traditionally, cinemas demanded a 90-day window between theatrical release and on-demand availability — but the advent of Netflix as a film financier in its own right began to muddy the waters.
Netflix backed Martin Scorsese to the tune of $159m to make The Irishman, but could not come to an agreement with the major US theatre chains on release plans.
The streaming giant needed a theatrical release to qualify for award contention. The talks broke down and The Irishman was a hard film to find (in cinemas at least).
Such moves — similar wrangling happened with Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma — triggered huge debates about the future of cinema (and in particular cinema going).
Even prior to this Scorsese had lamented the streaming culture, the lack of cinema as an ‘event’:
“Every new Hitchcock picture was an event. To be in a packed house in one of the old theatres watching Rear Window was an extraordinary experience: It was an event created by the chemistry between the audience and the picture itself, and it was electrifying.”
The Covid-19 pandemic further eroded the idea of a film release as an event.
Over the past two years blockbuster films have dropped on streaming alongside their theatrical release, and it’s no longer just Netflix.
Warner Bros lost their star director Christopher Nolan over their controversial release plans and his next film, Oppenheimer, is instead a Universal Studios project.
Variety reports that, in order to snag Nolan, Universal Studios agreed:
“An exclusive theatrical window between 90 to 120 days… The film will likely stay on the big screen for a longer period than the 45-day frame that appears to have become industry standard in the post-pandemic era.”
And it is not just Nolan, flying the flag for blockbusters.
An arthouse film is daring to do something different. Boldly different.
Memoria will, its distributors Neon say, NEVER come out on physical media, nor will it ever appear on Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.
Instead it will enjoy an eternal roadshow release, it will screen “in front of only one solitary audience at any given time,” moving “from city to city, theatre to theatre, week by week.”
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Memoria opened in just one cinema in the United States on December 26.
It made $6,797 in its opening weekend and $18,122 in its second, per BoxOfficeMojo.
It will not be released in the UK until January 7 and that is a single preview in a single cinema (the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London) at 6.15pm.
Such a strategy should not come as a surprise for an avant-garde director such as Weerasethakul (he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago).
A Palme d’Or winner back in 2010 with Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives, he now has full control over Memoria and how the audience will see it, akin to a painter deciding how their latest work should look in a gallery.
And Memoria may be Weerasethakul’s latest masterpiece. It won the Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and is nominated for best film at London Film Critics Circle Awards 2021. It’s also the Colombian entry for Best International Feature Film at this year’s Oscars.
The film stars Tilda Swinton as Jessica, a woman from Scotland who lives in Colombia. She is visiting her sister when she is awoken in the night by a strange, repetitive noise and seeks to investigate what is causing and why only she can hear it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyVe11x5y9o
The release decision by Neon has triggered a fresh round of debate. Is such a radical release strategy good for cinema? A strictly-cinema release is one thing but the carnival-esque touring aspect means thousands who had wished to watch Memoria are unlikely to be able to, perhaps ever.
And what for those with a health condition for whom catching Covid may be a death sentence?
Some filmgoers are predicting that Neon will eventually relent and release the film more traditionally, perhaps this initial strategy is just a (very savvy) PR move).
Even the most optimistic about such a release will accept that the film will simply be pirated and released on dodgy torrent sites, not what Weerasethakul will want at all given how much emphasis the film places on the cinematic experience, in particular sound.
“Sound has always played an essential part in Apichatpong’s poetics,” writes Manu Yáñez Murillo for Film Comment, “and Memoria highlights its aesthetic, physical, narrative, and conceptual dimensions.”
Speaking personally, I watched The Sound of Metal at home last Christmas during the height of the second Covid wave. Ever since I have yearned to re-experience it in a cinema, with no luck.
For now, the cinema is the ONLY place you can watch Memoria, and is that a good thing?
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