CINEMA 2018

CINEMA 2018

Editor-in-Chief: Iosif Proimakis, Nikos Tsagarakis

Written by: Lefteris Adamidis, Robbie Exiel, Ifigenia Kalantzi, Dimitris Kalantidis, Yiannis Kantea-Papadopoulos, Stratos Kersanidis, Dimitris Koliodimos, Thodoris Koutsogiannopoulos, Christos Mitsis, Ninos Fenek Mikelidis, Dimosthenis Xifilinos, Christos Skylakos , Nikos Tsagarakis, Andreas Tyros, Ilias Frangoulis , Dimitris Charitos

Annual edition of the Panhellenic Union of Cinema Critics (P.E.K.K.)

The end of the Universe is still late, according to astrophysicists. The end of History was followed by its total reset, bitterly refuting Francis Fukuyama. As for cinema, it is increasingly reminiscent of the English language, the inevitable decline of which is directly proportional to its global spread. Living himself, the great prophet of the nouvelle vag still insists, however, that the art that he and his company set out to renew has finally expired, at least in the form that flourished during the twentieth century.
The cinema is dead, so long live the cinema? Turning 90, Jean-Luc Godard symbolizes the last aesthetic revolution in the history of cinema, but also represents a certain kind of creators who served theory or criticism (from Eisenstein to the "Cahiers" company and Angelopoulos). Past glories; For a long time, the control of the projects, with few exceptions, has changed hands. Instead of the essential co-creators (directors – screenwriters), the production offices, the distributors, the sponsors, the various institutions, the bureaucrats and the heads of funding sources. They talk about a new cinema, while it is about new ways and terms of power. At some festivals, Press and Industry attend screenings together. It's not a zoning issue. Every integration, forced or not, cultivates an imperceptible osmosis of values, priorities and/or visions.
And if the Markets shift the artistic vision so that it adapts to the shape of the project (an echo of Prozac), by analogy, modern criticism is sidelined by the systematic alteration of its tools and traditional (therefore, old-fashioned) equipment. Hitchcock and Tarkovsky forced you to another proficiency, Cuarón and Odyar demand another, and long-form jokes another. Tears are of no use. The rapid retreat of critical thinking, in general, stems from the defeat of Reason, humanities, classical education and social control in the face of the onslaught of virtual reality, hallucinogens, digital technology and the consequent New Branding that baptizes fish meat and comedy melodrama.
New York, like New Moudania. New Economy and New Language? Let's not fall into the easy trap. The enemy of fluorescent Neon is, of course, not the old one. It is the New, with its appropriate authenticity and uniqueness, as a response to the totalitarianism of standardization and absolute standard. The enemy of critical thinking is not only intellectual laziness, submission to the average taste and fashions of our time. It is, above all, neo-conservatism that wears the face of Political Correctness. To deal effectively with it, knowledge, honesty, cinephilia and secularism make up the necessary combination. […] (From the publication)