When Dolan gets angry, Netflix should better watch out!
In a recent letter to the American online video platform, Xavier Dolan ferociously protested against Netflix's choice to change the 1.1 format of his marvellous 'Mommy' to a 1.85.1 basic format.
For all the lovers of this film the 1.1 format is a key feature (for all of you who have not seen it yet, I promise there are no spoilers in this blog... But watch it quickly! Just for you the French Institute will show it on Wednesday, 20th at 8.40pm). If, like me, you felt all the distress, the passion, the beauty of this mother and son story, you cannot understand Netflix’s choice to change the format. Indeed, if the 1.1 format is awkward, as we are not used to it, we learn to unstand this story of a mother who has to face the dilemma of keeping her son, who is loveable but violent, at home. And the young Quebecois director has been alerted of the Netflix aspect-ratio alteration by his followers! "I know a lot of people are saying, 'Oh, 1:1, how pretentious,'' admits Dolan. "But for me, it seems a more humble and private format, a little more fitting to these lives we're diving into. Cinemascope [2.35:1] would have been extremely pretentious and incompatible for Mommy. To try to get in that apartment and film these people in that aspect ratio would have been unseemly." In this case, the problem is that changing the format will hurt, for Dolan, the film's identity.
We found his reaction directly on Twitter ! Here it is:
What a virulent letter! On top of that, Netflix had quickly answered “we are looking into this” . The audiovisual -artificial- code seems to be a virulent theme in the recent cinematographic industry. We also have a current debate about a new film where the shooting techniques are as original as the subject of the story: two transsexual prostitutes who crossed Los Angeles on a Christmas Day. Yes, I’m talking about Tangerine! The Sean Baker film shot... with an Iphone!
Here's the link: http://www.konbini.com/fr/entertainment-2/tangerine-ca-change-quoi-film-entierement-tourne-avec-iphone/
So get in touch with any ideas of a possible new audiovisual format debate!
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