Cinema is diversifying: Aussie directors

Ever since arriving in town for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, avant garde British director Peter Greenaway has been saying cinema is dead.

Greenaway, whose CV includes The Draughtsman's Contract and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, believes the laptop generation is no longer content going to a dark place for up to two hours and watching a movie.

He has even pinned down the date when he says cinema died - September 31, 1983 when the remote control was introduced into living rooms around the world.

Generation X is all about multi-media and interacting, which cinema cannot fulfil, he says.

Greenaway seems to be true to his word in that he has forsaken traditional film making and now produces short films - five to 10 minutes long - targeted at mobile phone users.

But some Australian directors have their own thoughts about the health of cinema.

Academy Award winning Melbourne director Adam Elliott says the communal experience of people sitting in a cinema watching a film is strong but there are other ways of enjoying a movie.

"I was in LA last week and had a meeting with my manager there who told me there has never been so many feature films made right now than at any other point in history," Elliott said.

"What is happening is that there are obviously more ways now to watch a film."

He says his latest "plasticine film" - Mary and Max - has been watched by people in the cinema, on DVD, on aeroplanes, on television through video on demand - and will soon be on iPhones.

"I believe that as time goes on less and less people will sit in the dark together in favour of other ways of viewing, but that the communal experience of watching a feature film will never die," Elliott said.

"I know I would rather watch a good comedy with 300 other people in a cinema than be at home in my underpants on the couch watching it alone on DVD."

Dee McLachlan, director of The Jammed, which looks at sex slavery in Australia, says cinema is the modern equivalent of the old story telling experience.

"Because we are social animals, getting told a story together has more of an impact than being told a story alone," she said.

"Cinema is only one way of seeing movies - as is a mobile phone - so cinema and the telling of stories will change and adapt - but it is a cathartic experience for society to collectively gather and witness narrative.

"Cinema is not going to close shop just yet."

Another Melbourne-based director, Richard Lowenstein, of Dogs In Space fame, says Greenaway is acting as an "agent provocateur" and has at least sparked debate about the future of cinema.

He believes Greenaway may be right when it comes to independent filmmakers who are struggling to get funding.

"Getting finance is very dodgy unless you are into making Hollywood blockbusters - the heyday is over," he said.

He says cinema no longer leads the charge as it has for the past 80-90 years, but "death at the hands of the remote control - I think not".

Melbourne's arts festival finishes on Saturday, but Greenaway's contribution to the festival, a 20-minute light and sound show focusing on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, continues until November 8 at the North Melbourne Town Hall.