About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2011)
NEWS OF ATHENS' CINEMA SCENE Who's Really Sorry?: Last week, when a long and strange email of "apology" from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings appeared in my inbox, I read it, as undoubtedly did millions of my fellow subscribers to Hastings' service, with a mixture of bemusement and indignation. Was this guy really going to strike the pose of delivering a humble "mea culpa" for the insen sitive manner in which he had announced his company's arrogantly prodigious recent price hike as cover for the announcement of a convenience-diminishing restructuring of said company? Yes, he was. Just as Netflix was implementing the 60 percent price increase (for some subscription plans) that had cost it about a million subscribers, it was also jet tisoning its DVD delivery business to a new subsidiary called Qwikster, whose custom ers would have to maintain separate online "queues" from Netflix's, which would become an online streaming-only business. hand, Criterion's February streaming deal with Hulu has meant that some 600 foreign and art-house titles—many of them unavailable on DVD—are offered for instant viewing, on a dedicated page, to those who can afford the company's $7.99-per-month subscription fee. But at the same time, Netflix (soon to become Quikster), which retains the rights to Criterion DVDs, no longer offers all the company's titles to its subscribers in that format. DVDs—and especially Blu-ray discs— provide a far higher-quality viewing experience than streaming, and people who care about that will always demand a "hard" delivery format. But if Netflix isn't going to offer new Criterion editions of films like Jean-Pierre Melville's Leon Morin, Priest. Satyajit Ray's The Music Room or Jonathan Demme's Something Wild—to say nothing of smaller-label titles like Shout! Factory's recent reissue of Alan Rudolph's brilliant 1985 Trouble in Mind— then Senna, a new documentary about Formula One champion Aryton Senna da Silva, opens Sept. 30 at Cine. It was tempting to presume, when the rate increase was announced, that it signaled Netflix's hubristic self-assurance that, having trounced its brick-and-mortar forerunners, it was now the only game in town. But the picture looks a bit clearer now: anticipating a massive shift in customer demand for video delivery to streaming, the company is reposi tioning itself for survival in a market that's barely begun to take shape. The recent news that Starz will not renew its deal to provide streaming content to Netflix (bolting, it is rumored, to Blockbuster's new subscription service), as well as Netflix's reported new agreements with DreamWorks Animation and Discovery, give some inkling of what that new market will look like. With companies like Hulu Plus, Apple, Amazon and Vudu competing for content, customers may find themselves with some difficult choices to make. So, what does all this mean for cine philes? Well, it's complicated. Many of us signed up with Netflix because it had practi cally every DVD available (though Hastings' claim that "nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD" is hysterically inaccurate), which local video stores, while still invalu able resources, simply couldn't claim. The shifting of priorities from DVD delivery to streaming has produced decidedly mixed, and often confusing results; this year's develop ments surrounding The Criterion Collection serve as an interesting case in point. On one who will? Certainly not Blockbuster. Yet it's hard to imagine, especially in the current economy, that specialty DVD labels can get by without making their releases available to the many customers who can't afford to buy them outright. Perhaps this presents an opportunity for independent video stores to get back into the game, though that's probably a viable proposition mainly in dense urban centers. Maybe we'll see the rise of an iiber-Facet's Multimedia-style DVD subscription service as competition fosters increasing specializa tion among market participants. Whatever happens, it's clear that the Utopian promise of a technological age that offers easy access to all the riches of film history is a long way from being fulfilled, if it ever will be. The Rest of It: Coming up Tuesday, Oct. 11, don't miss the next installment in Cine's Director Spotlight series: Wpody Allen's Manhattan (my personal favorite of Allen's films), which will be introduced by Richard Neupert, director of UGA's film studies pro gram. For details, go to www.athenscine. com... The Thursday, Sept. 29 ICE-Vision series screening is Vera Chytilova's surreal 1966 Czech film Daisies, at 8 p.m. in Room S150 of UGA's Lamar Dodd School of Art. Go to www.ideasforcreativeexploration.com or find ICE-Vision on Facebook to learn more. Dave Marr film@flagpole com A GOOD I*Uf;* lmiiV/f ViVA! 2270 Barnett Shook Rd • 706-850-8284 CCD C3KG0 HAND ROLLED EMPANADAS ARGENTINE CHEESESTEAK HAND-CUT GRILLED STEAKS WITH CHIM1CHURRI GABY’S ATOMIC CUPCAKES & MORE! CHOW TO SIESTA! 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WeRecycle is available now on the Android Market (and coming soon for WeRecycle is in a national competition called Apps for the so show your UGA spirit and vote by October 7! http: appsfOftheenvironment.challenge.gov submissions 4642-werecycle WeRecycle was co-developed by UGA professors in the Faculty of Engineering with a grant from the Environmental Research and Education Foundation. This ad was donated by GoodWorld Cleaning Servic MEXICAN RESTAURANT 100% Authentic Mexican and Now Serving California Style American Food BREAKFAST ALL DAY - HAMBURGERS • SANDWICHES • SALAD Try our Athens Burger 20% OFF ANY FOOD ITEM WITH COUPON MonThurv only • limit one per Utile • Not rabd with lunch specUt Expires 10.5/11 400 Hawthorne Ave., Sle 12 • 706-353-8557 ■ SEPTEMBER 28, 2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 13
