Why Hollywood is bad for cinema1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe comic and fantastical films of Britain and France, the military and historical dramas of the Russians ““ all of these genres would within a decade be colonised by the greatest cinema show on Earth, Hollywood.
For 100 years, Hollywood has dominated popular film-making, giving us stories, character types and ambitions. At the same time, digital technology means anyone with talent can make an original film with a camera bought off eBay or the high street.
- Francine Stock, presenter of Radio 4’s The Film Programme Photo: BBC
The director Ken Loach believes that there should be publicly owned and run film houses, like libraries, so that we could go some way to challenging Hollywood’s monopoly.
There are global shifts too: Indian cinema’s influence is clear in Slumdog Millionaire and the glizty theatricality of Moulin Rouge; action films with martial arts stars from Asia have long done well in the West and now China has announced its first major production with a mainstream Western star, Christian Bale.
