STREAMS WITHIN THE MAINSTREAM
Film Trends in the Nineties
The article is an overview
of general film trends in the cinema of the nineties: The
French revival, failing pressure of the Hollywood mainstream,
festivals as the main trend indicators, a prolific wave
of US »auteur« independents, the world domination of British
social wave films.
The world cinema of the nineties is marked with highly dynamic
trends. There is the French revival with C. Klapisch, M. Kassovitz,
the new Chabrol and Rohmer. The pressure from Hollywood’s mainstream
blockbusters continues but lacks inventiveness with catastrophe
films filed with sentimentalism and banal situations, unsuccessful
highbudget comedy and women’s films. Film festivals like Cannes,
Sundance, Venice and Berlin continue to be the main trend indicators
particularly sensitive to anything trendy and new.
The rise
of US »auteur« independents (low budget films) is also
very important, with some of them competing for a place
in the mainstream cinema, while others, like Sayles, continue
to work low budget. This prolific off-field, with 800 films
registered at the Sundance film festival, has become dense
with short and transient recycling trends such as noire
revivals, pulp poetics, gay films, young films, new age
films, etc. In Britain, social wave films masterfully dominate
over the staid mainstream adaptations of Shakespeare and
Austin. Dragan Rubeša |