Covid + Letterboxd = gen Z cinephile
Citation:
Cinema-going has still to reach pre-pandemic levels but rereleases of classic films are booming, thanks to the fact that gen Z seem to have discovered old movies. “Lockdown had this effect on young audiences realising, through online viewing, that there were a lot more films out there than they previously thought,” says Paul Gallagher, programme manager of the Glasgow Film Theatre. “There is a popular narrative that streaming is killing cinema, but actually people are discovering a wider range of cinema through streaming.” Noodling around on Letterboxd during the pandemic with nothing for it but a deep dive into Taiwanese cinema of the 1990s, the under-25s are now turning out in record numbers for the old repertory cinemas – of which there are now more than 1,500 in the UK, a 50% increase since Covid – lured by ticket discount schemes and sparkling new 4k rereleases. Research commissioned by classic film distributors Park Circus found that the UK and Ireland market for classic movies in 2022 and 2023 had grown 139% since 2019.
“We’ve had the busiest 12 months in our history,” says Paul Vickery, head of programming at the Prince Charles cinema in London, where Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love has played virtually non-stop since the pandemic. “The core staples of our programme have completely changed,” he says. When Vickery joined the Prince Charles in 2007, staple movies such as Wayne’s World, Labyrinth and Mean Girls used to play downstairs in the big 300-seater venue, while arthouse films such as After Hours, Barry Lyndon and Beau Travail played upstairs in the smaller 104-seater. “That has completely reversed,” he says, “The upstairs movies are all playing downstairs and the downstairs movies are playing upstairs. This year the big one was Barry Lyndon. Traditionally, that’s the sort of film you might see on a Sunday afternoon or maybe midweek evening. Now, it’s become a Saturday night movie. ‘Oh, we’ve got a three-hour gap in the programme, put Barry Lyndon on.’”
article complet ici:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/23/covid-cinephilia-lockdown-gen-z-cinemaL'article évoque aussi les mouvements tectoniques qui déplacent le centre du canon cinéphilique de l'Europe vers l'Asie (en s'appuyant seulement sur le top 250 du site) et une cinéphilie moins hiérarchisée autour de la figure des Grands Auteurs.