In a new essay about Federico Fellini, filmmaker Martin Scorsese weighed in on the current status of cinema and how he feels the nature of the art form is being devalued in an age where companies care more about creating “content” than they do about the importance of cinema on culture. In the essay for Harper’s Magazine, Scorsese fully admits that there are advantages with streaming services (he released his critically acclaimed The Irishman on Netflix), but notes that trusting an algorithm to determine what audiences should watch serves as a reminder that these services will merely offer viewers what they think they would like, as opposed to curated services that put thought into crafting suggestions, potentially with films that engage with them or are drastically different from what they typically select. Given that Scorsese shared that he personally didn’t consider superhero movies to be cinema back in 2019 and earned him backlash, these recent remarks about not wanting all moving images to fall into the category of “content” will surely ruffle some feathers.
