When visiting the “lost” cinemas of Melbourne in our field trip it was hard to not connect with the notion of phantom cinema which was presented to us at the beginning of the course. Buildings which pay homage to their past life through the withstanding architectural extravagance of the cinema of the time period. I often walk past the capitol theatre given that I live in the CBD and every time it hard not to notice the relics of a time past. It a time capsule into the world which once was yet it also hard not to notice how the past relics have been covered, built over, changed or altered. These windows into Melbourne’s past history have slowly been lost to the change in the way society has operated and its relationship with cinema. My closest cinema, Hoyts Melbourne Central and or Nova Carlton hardly look like cinemas from the outside both housed inside shopping malls with entrances hidden away. The only resemblance of cinemas of old are the ticketing desk at the front of each establishment. I find it hard not to see this change in the experience of the physical cinema to attributing to the shift towards watching films at home on streaming services. Aside from the larger screen and the opportunity to watch films on release, I believe many of those in my demographic often do not see the value in experiencing cinema as they feel they can replicate the same experience in their own home. I do however do not think this is the death of the cinema experience as whole, to me it is just changing to something new. This idea is best explored in André Gaudreault and Philippe Marion’s (2015) book The End of Cinema? In the introduction they explore this shift in the medium of cinema and put it as ‘cinema-as-a-medium is not dead, but because its dominant form is dead (or in the process of dying), one should not use the word cinema to describe the new form’. I believe that as society further shifts away from the medium and experience of cinema that once was we will further engage and develop the new medium of cinema, one in which film making and watching is more accessible and easier than ever. All I hope is that the artistic love and passion for making films and the magic of cinema of old is not lost in the process.
References:
Gaudreault A and Marion P (2015), The Death of Cinema? Columbia University Press, New York.