The Celluloid Mobius Loop

England’s First Post e-zine writes that “Veteran directors are showing their younger peers how to tell stories.” But it unintentionally illustrates why movies have increasingly lost the ability to do just that–tell stories. Or as I wrote in January of 2006:

Over four years ago, on the weekend before 9/11, John Podhoretz explained a big reason why modern movies by and large stank: it’s the writing, stupid, to paraphrase James Carville. During Hollywood’s golden era, moviemakers knew that while they could craft iconic images, they weren’t the best source of original narratives:

Since the movies are a visual medium, most of the energy and enthusiasm of moviemakers derives from a command of the camera and an ability to manipulate images. What they don’t know very well – what they’ve never known very well