There’s no easy answer when it comes to the debate surrounding Netflix and the traditional theatrical experience. If you’re reading this now, odds are you’re a film fan. And as film fans, we all know that there is nothing that can truly replicate the special, communal experience of watching a new movie with a crowd. But yet, Netflix is able to deliver high-quality films from those who might not get distribution otherwise. You just have to watch them at home.
Well, the debate rages on, with various filmmakers and Hollywood types taking stands. And the latest folks to join the debate are “Pain and Glory” filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and his star Antonio Banderas. As they discuss in a new interview with Variety, the streaming service (and others like Netflix) offers some great content, but to be considered “cinema,” the tech company is going to have to play by the rules.
“I see my daughter, she can watch a movie [on a cellphone], and I don’t understand that,” Banderas said. “I say to her, ‘How can you appreciate the lighting work, how can you appreciate a good performance, if you practically don’t see the eyes of the actors?’ ‘Oh, but I just follow the story, Papa!’ I prefer to go to a movie theater and see movies as they were conceived in the mind of the creators.”
However, the actor admits that he is a Netflix consumer, and said that he uses the service as a way of discovering films from around the world. But he feels that the streaming service will have to bend to the will of festivals if it wants to be a serious Oscar-contending studio.
“[But] if they want to compete with other movies, they have to play on the same track,” said the actor. “It’s not really fair that you open in two or three theaters and then that’s it. You have to do promotional work; you have to compete at the same level as the rest of the movies. It’s a risky game, because you have to invest a lot of money, but I think it’s fair. If they want to compete in a festival like Cannes, or they want to go to the Oscars, that’s the way to do it.”
Almodóvar agrees with the actor, and elaborates further on his position. You see, the filmmaker was part of a group of folks that were against Netflix being included in the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. He has been seen as someone that isn’t a fan of the streaming future.
READ MORE: ‘Dolor Y Gloria’ Trailer: Pedro Almodóvar Returns With Antonio Banderas & Penelope Cruz
“I have no hostility toward Netflix or any other platform. But a film that may be up for an award really must be seen and shown on a screen in a cinema. Otherwise, it would be almost a contradiction in terms, because films are conceived to be shown on a screen to people who are strangers, who don’t know each other, in the dark. That’s the magic of it all,” said Almodóvar.
He added, “What I’m trying to defend is that pleasure, that ecstasy, that euphoria you feel when you see ‘Roma’ on a big screen. All of that is stolen from us if we just end up seeing the film on a TV screen.”
Ultimately, the Oscar-winning filmmaker feels that Netflix is a great medium for something wholly different than traditional film and TV. And in that case, Almodóvar feels like he’d be willing to work with the streaming service.
“I don’t see myself making what I’d call a Netflix original solely and exclusively for Netflix, because I would miss the cinema as the venue for my film to be shown,” said Almodóvar. “But I could see myself in the future making a series — not a series that would be mono-thematic, but perhaps a series made up of different episodes of short stories, almost like short films. … It would be a way of getting out of that straitjacket of a film that has to be an hour and a half in length, or an episode that has to be a half-hour only.”
“Pain and Glory” is set to screen at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival before arriving in theaters in the US in October.