Steven Soderbergh: The State of Cinema

Over the weekend, social media was abuzz with a presentation Steven Soderbergh gave at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Here is an excerpt of the transcript:

A few months ago I was on this Jet Blue coming from New York to Burbank, and I like Jet Blue not because of the prices, but they have this terminal at JFK that’s really nice. I think it may be the nicest terminal in the country although I have to say of this country, if you want to see some great airports you have to go to a major city in another part of the world — they have amazing, amazing airports, they’re incredible and they’re quiet. You’re not being assaulted by music all the time. I don’t know when it was decided that we all need a soundtrack everywhere we go. I was just in the bathroom upstairs and there was a soundtrack, accompanying me at the urinal [laughter], I don’t understand.

Anyways I’m getting comfortable in my seat — I spent the extra 60 bucks for the legroom so we’re hitting altitude and I’m getting a little comfortable — and there’s this guy who is in the other side of the aisle in front of me and he pulls out his iPad; he’s about to start watching stuff. I’m curious as to what he’s going to watch. He’s a white guy in his mid thirties and what he’s done is he’s loaded in half a dozen, sort of, “action extravaganzas” and he’s watching each of the action sequences. He’s skipping over all the dialogue and the narrative. So this guy’s flight is just going to be five and a half hours of mayhem [laughter].

I had this wave of, not panic, it’s not like my heart started fluttering, but I had this sense of “Am I going insane?” or “Is the world going insane?” or both. So now I start with the circular thinking, I think, maybe it’s me, maybe it’s generational — I’m getting old, I’m in the back nine now, I’m older than Elvis, and maybe my 22 year old daughter doesn’t feel this way at all; maybe I should ask her. Then I think “No.” Something is going on, something that can be measured is happening and there has to be — when people are more outraged by the ambiguous ending of The Sopranos than some young girl being stoned to death, then there’s something wrong.

Here is the video of his presentation:

You may read the entire transcript here.

What are your thoughts about Soderbergh’s comments? Your sense of the state of cinema?

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