March Blues

March 8, 2007:
Good football is dead. Arsenal, Barca, Lyon & Madrid are all out of the Champions League. With the exception of the Bundesliga & La Liga, all the other European league titles are almost decided. Yawn. Boring.
1-0 and 0-0 boring football is here to stay. As long as it can win games, ugly futbol will not go away. And as more and more money men invest in football teams, you can be sure that winning will become the only objective.

Just like box office numbers are killing good cinema, so is the business like approach to calcio. Thanks FIFA. Thanks really for selling the game out.

No real movies to watch. Multiplexes are gearing for summer releases, so no good movies will be out. Sure one can go watch manufactured fancy commercial movies too busy trying to be cool and pretending to be hip. Seriously, just because a director makes a slick movie about old genre titles does not make his film art. Entertaining, yes. But art, no!

Do we need art? Sure in little doses. But when there is nothing around, then what to do? Film festival season is far far away. Cannes does not count because it is not open for film fans.

CIFF and VIFF are far far away......

Books are the only saving grace. Sure, old classic movies can be rented to fix the addiction but when there is quality cinema in the world and one can't get to watch it, that is painful. North American Distribution really knows how to restrict real movie titles from making it out here. Hey, if it can't make money, then what is the point?

And if an independent theatre does book quality movies, no one goes to see them. People want fast and CGI-laced flicks not slow and picturesque cinema. Oh well, this feeling will pass too.

Maybe one day, beautiful futbal will triump. Mayone one day, real cinema will shine. In the meantime, thank God for those books.