The Hollywood Reporter has released their latest roundtable feature for this year’s awards season, this one being the Directors Roundtable featuring Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips), David O. Russell (American Hustle), Ben Stiller (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) and Lee Daniels (Lee Daniels’ The Butler) and what I found most interesting was the conversation regarding mainstream television vs. mainstream cinema.
McQueen would appear to disagree entirely with the notion television is better than cinema, shaking his head even when Stiller gives television some credit and even appearing defiant when Cuaron says, “[Television] is presenting a more interesting narrative, than most mainstream cinema.” His focus here is on the word “mainstream” and in some ways he’s right in saying there’s a larger percentage of great narratives being presented on mainstream television than at the cinema, but at the same time the bulk of great television isn’t even on “mainstream” television, it’s on the extended cable channels such as FX and AMC and then even further into the paid packages on Showtime and HBO. In effect, this is the equivalent of the more independent wings of today’s studios such as Focus and Fox Searchlight.
So, when we talk “mainstream” are we talking about “Sons of Anarchy”, “Breaking Bad”, “Game of Thrones” and “Dexter” or are we talking “The Blacklist”, “Nashville”, “The Real Housewives of __________”, “Revenge” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”?
I also enjoyed hearing Russell give Megan Ellison at Annapurna a shout out for the risks she’s taken as of late as that is one production studio willing to try and make movies that will hopefully not only appeal to the masses, but challenge adults looking for more complex narratives. Similarly, it’s just as fun to watch Russell try to avoid the question of conflict on set and then Stiller, who starred in Russell’s Flirting with Disaster, try and speak for him only to have Russell seem to accept it as a good way of dodging a bullet and allowing him to keep the cat in the bag.
Russell also gets into similar territory he discussed in last year’s roundtable session when he was pushing Silver Linings Playbook when the question “What’s the hardest thing about being a director?” comes up, but Cuaron is the one with the most interesting response finding a kinship with the way Russell describes losing his way:
Your process, it’s very similar to what happened to me. You do your first films with a lot of enthusiasm. I was lucky that my second film [1995’s A Little Princess] was a blissful experience. And then I got a bit engaged in the machinery. I forgot that I used to do my own stuff, and I became this reader of screenplays that they were sending to me. And I started forgetting that I had a voice. It started to become more about the industry. And then I did a film that was a horrible experience, Great Expectations (1998). That is a film that I should have not done. I passed many times, and then I ended up saying yes for the wrong reasons.
Either way, that’s enough of me describing what you’re about to watch, give it a look below, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it and if you missed the writer roundtable with John Ridley (12 Years A Slave), Danny Strong (The Butler), Julie Delpy (Before Midnight), Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said) and Jonas Cuaron (Gravity) and George Clooney and Grant Heslov for The Monuments Men you really ought to do yourself a favor and check it out as well right here.
