The 'Modern' Problem: Cinema is dead. Transformers has dominated the worldwide box office, making over a billion dollars. All major releases are based on an existing property. Is there any originality left for us to enjoy? At least that's what a lot of people think, looking fondly on previous decades where "better" films were released. But Actually: Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris tells of a screenwriter obsessed with the 1920s who somehow develops the ability to travel back to his beloved time. There he meets, among a plethora of great writers and artists, a woman who, despite living in his ideal time, is herself obsessed with the 1890s. And it just goes on and on; we always hold the past in higher esteem because our rose-tinted recollections are more amenable than the bleakness of the modern day. And this stretches across to the perception of cinema; we're far from the newest generation to complain about the state of film. when Jurassic Park, widely regarded as one of the best blockbusters ever made, was first released, Roger Ebert dismissed it, saying it couldn't hold a candle to Jaws. Jaws, another film viewed as a classic, that at the time was unfavourably compared to movies released years hence. What's most commonly remembered about cinema in, say, the 1940s is Casablanca, Citizen Kane, It's Wonderful Life and all the other decade's masterpieces. What's often ignored is that movies on the same level as the pandering tat shovelled into modern multiplexes week in, week out were produced then too. Sure, there's probably more bad movies now, but that's predominantly because there's more movies made in general. Which other issues with modern cinema have been around longer than people think? Let us know in the comments below.
