Cannes boss, Thierry Fremaux, was a guest speaker at the Goteborg Film Festival. He had some interesting things to say about cinema, festivals, and, most intriguingly, Netflix.
Fremaux, again, cited David Fincher as a filmmaker who left cinema to make platform movies. Here’s the exact quote:
He’s still a great filmmaker, but he doesn’t exist at the same level in our hearts and minds than when he showed “Zodiac” in competition […] He wants to work alone, quietly, making his films for platforms. It’s a different world. We miss him. We want him back in our world. than when he showed ‘Zodiac’ in competition
As you know, Cannes does not screen Netflix films, at least they haven’t since 2017 (“The Meyerowitz Stories” and “Okja”) which was the first and last time the streamer went on the Croisette. I was there, at screenings for both of those films, and when the Netflix logo appeared before the film began, a loud chorus of boos could be heard from the audience.
These comments from Fremaux parallel what he had previously stated about Fincher — he’s of the belief that Fincher and cinema no longer co-exist:
Fincher has left cinema. Fincher now works for streamers where he’s directing incredible stuff. I tried to explain this to him, modestly, obviously, that he doesn’t exist anymore. At least for us. For reasons left up to his own liking, he wants his creative freedom, he doesn’t want to fight with studio heads, his films tend to be very expensive, but I’d love for him to come back to cinema. He’s one of the greats.
Fremaux is basically saying that because Fincher’s films are released on a streaming service, the quality of his work is somehow beneath what cinema should be. That’s quite the statement, and it does go to showcase the purism that a festival like Cannes strives for.
Is Fincher still making cinema? I think so. But it’d be foolish to believe that nothing has changed in terms of the trajectory that he’s taken the last decade. With the studio system closing down its doors on many "auteur" filmmakers, Fincher, with his ambitious needs, didn’t have much of a choice but to accept that there was a lack of opportunities for his own vision of things.
Fincher has an exclusive, multi-year deal, with Netflix that was recently extended for three additional years. Fincher has been all about Netflix for 10 years now, delving into the streaming game full-on, creating shows such as “House of Cards,” “Mindhunter“ “Love, Death + Robots” and films like “Mank” and the upcoming “The Killer.”
Fincher released “The Killer” last year, and Netflix had absolutely no intention of releasing it for more than just a few days in a scant number of theaters, for the sole purpose of qualifying it for next year’s Oscars.
And yet, in an interview with Le Monde, Fincher seemed to firmly believe that Netflix was the best place in Hollywood to make movies. There was no hesitation on his part. He called Netflix the “industry standard” and the best place to make movies in Hollywood.