As jury president of Rivera International Film Festival 2024, the director Andrew Dominik (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, “Blonde”) tells us what “power have films to evoke a range of emotions in viewers, from worry to excitement. A good film takes place in the viewer’s mind and stomach, creating a personal and immersive experience“.
For Andrew Dominik, however, the importance of cinema is not the same nowadays as in the past. “Cinema is everywhere. Its golden period was the 70s There were film really vital. Everywhere in the world, cinema was vital. And it’s changed now because it’s become a much bigger business which is currently failing“.
“In the 70s cinema was not a big business, but small – director Andrew Dominik says – And corporations bought movie studios because they wanted to have something cool. They wanted to go to the Oscars or meet actresses or go to good parties, and their real business was like making cars or steel. But then as all those those businesses failed or they moved offshore and they figured out how to release movies on mass, then cinema became a much bigger business. And a corporate mentality was applied to filmmaking, and films became much more risk averse. And I think that it just continued on that path“.
How does streaming influence this situation? “Except for Netflix, it’s not a profitable business – Andrew Dominik replies – But it seems to they seem to be destroying the studio system, which I don’t know if that’s a good thing. There’s a state of flux and nobody really knows where it’s going. And if people did, they’d know what to do“.
Plot
President of the jury at Riff 2024 is director and screenwriter Andrew Dominik. He directed his first film “Chopper” with actor Eric Bana in 2000. Seven years later a major success came with “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”. The film stars and is produced by Brad Pitt and earned two Oscar nominations, including one for Casey Affleck as Best Supporting Actor. Andrew Dominik worked with Brad Pitt again for the gangster movie “Cogan – Killing them Softly” in 2012 and later made two documentary films, including “One More Time with Feeling” dedicated to author and composer Nick Cave. The year 2022 was the year of the controversial film “Blonde”, a biopic about Marylin Monroe, interpreted by the talented Ana de Armas, which earned an Oscar nomination.