While we have bigger issues to discuss with the theatrical experience (considering there’s no such thing as a theatrical experience for many people right now due to COVID-19), there is still the ongoing debate over whether or not films have to be seen on the big screen or if you can still have a worthwhile viewing experience on a smaller screen, such as a TV, laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone. Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and other filmmakers would all scoff at the idea of watching a film on a phone. But in the case of Denis Villeneuve, watching a film no matter the screen size is better than nothing.
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Speaking to Roger Deakins as part of the Oscar-winning cinematographer’s Team Deakins podcast, Villeneuve talked about how he is perfectly happy to have certain films readily available to watch on his iPhone. And in fact, he explained how he only discovered some classic films on TV screens.
“Roger made jokes about my iPhone,” the filmmaker explained. “For people who don’t know. Roger was traumatized that I had ‘The Thin Red Line’ from Terrence Malick on my iPhone and Roger thought it was horrific. Me, I thought it was cool because I could take the movie with me. It’s not the same, but the thing is…I want to fight for the big screen, but a lot of my cinematic experiences have actually been on television.”
He added, “I discovered ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ on television, and I later realized I discovered ‘Blade Runner’ on television. I discovered a lot of movies that were massive influences on television, or, like most Ingmar Bergman films, I discovered on VHS. And still, through these movies, they had a massive impact. All that debate on the size of the screen…because I am a filmmaker and I just love films.”
Deakins agreed with Villeneuve and said, “I love the experience of being in a cinema with an audience but I think it feels more important that people see them. If in the future people are going to watch more movies on television, that’s fine. The films that I remember from my childhood are from watching them on TV and not the cinema experience.”
While the idea of watching Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” is a bit absurd on an iPhone, Villeneuve does make a solid point about how film fans can have a meaningful experience watching something on any size screen. And in many cases, we all discover some classic features that were incredible to see on the big screen only through TV screens or other smaller devices.
Clearly, it’s obvious that Villeneuve and Deakins would rather everything be available on the big screen, but that’s just not how the future of the industry is heading. And because of that, it’s always better to have a film available to watch than to not have that opportunity at all.