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Film is better than TV
Following Alexi Duggins’s case for TV as a superior visual medium to the big screen, Film editor Dave Calhoun returns fire
Read Time Out TV writer's Alexi Duggin's case for TV.1 I love TV…
… but I also love reading Heat magazine – when I can’t be bothered to pick up a book. Television is great for filling those gaps when you can’t be bothered to do anything else. It’s barely worth comparing television with cinema: they occupy opposing places in our culture. Is there any other ‘art form’ during which it’s acceptable to do the ironing/walk in halfway through/nod off?
2 While we’re at it, is television really an ‘art form’?
I’d say it’s more of a technology, like binoculars. Television is a portal through which we might see good drama or news programmes, if we’re lucky. But we’re more likely to see Jordan preening on ITV2. Film, meanwhile, is a canvas that redefines its boundaries with each release, whether a masterpiece or not. That doesn’t mean all filmmakers treat cinema as art, but the only thing consistent about television is the plastic casing.
3 TV could go much deeper than film… but it doesn’t
Let’s call it the Ken Barlow Paradigm – or the Dot Cotton Complex. Soaps can be fantastic for triggering debate – but they’re rubbish at characterisation. Both Ken and Dot have been on screens for decades, but Dot remains the same set of tics and fags and Ken only exists for the sake of a place in the ‘Guinness World of Records’. Compare what we know of Ken or Dot after hundreds and hundreds of episodes with what we learn of Daniel Plainview in ‘There Will Be Blood’ or Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather’ in just a few hours.
4 Cinema brings the world to you
Flick through this magazine’s film listings, and you’ll find films from all over the world. Cinema is a window on our planet. The only time television investigates other cultures is when a white guy from north London decides to take a boat trip down the Amazon. It’s hardly Herzog.
5 Film allows for personal visions. TV is a production line
Sure, commissioners wet themselves every time there’s a new Stephen Poliakoff on the box. But that’s because television is so rarely an outpost of artistic vision. Cinema embraces individual visions on every level, from Christopher Nolan on ‘Batman’ to smaller-scale visionaries such as Abbas Kiarostami, Paolo Sorrentino and Pedro Almodóvar. Maybe that’s why cinema is so enduring. It often feels like the history of television amounts to a clip of an elephant taking a dump.
6 If TV is nursery school, film is university
Many British directors learnt their trade in television before graduating to film. I’m thinking of Ridley Scott, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Stephen Frears, Paul Greengrass… What’s stopping them going back? Apart from the chance to write scripts by committee, the short production schedules, the lack of control, political interference, the short-term thinking of commissioners…
7 Even TV critics think film is superior
Shows like ‘The Wire’ and ‘The Sopranos’ are excellent, yet it’s funny how television critics describe them as ‘cinematic’ – and wheel out the same examples in television’s defence. The suggestion is that these are exceptions and owe a huge debt to cinema. Who am I to argue?
8 Television gives documentary a bad name
Documentary is on a roll in cinemas: for example, the last few years saw an explosion of excellent political documentaries. When the BBC’s ‘Panorama’ programme considers that rigorous investigative journalism is John Sweeney stalking a Scientology publicist, we’re doomed. And to consider ‘Wife Swap’ ‘factual’ is to kill culture.
9 Television is a tax on the stupid
Tune in to a daytime magazine show and you’re bound to see a multiple-choice quiz along the lines of ‘Who is Prime Minister? Is it: a) Mickey Mouse, b) Osama Bin Laden, c) Gordon Brown? Calls cost 50p a minute…’ What horrible condescension to, and cynical exploitation of, an audience. Not even the most over-zealous film marketing compares.
10 You wouldn’t catch Humphrey Bogart in ‘Doctor Who’ or ‘Silent Witness’
Or Sean Penn. Or any other top-grade film star. When ‘ER’ offered George Clooney vast riches to return as a guest, he said no. Film is home to excellence; television is the refuge of mediocrity. That’s what Clooney knows and Bogart knew: cinema is for dreaming, television is for falling asleep to.
Read Time Out TV writer's Alexi Duggin's case for TV.
Author: Dave Calhoun
User comments on this story
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- Jay grand said...
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DON'T CONFUSE 'TV' with 'HBO'
What a load of Bollocks.
AS IF ALL tv directors didn't want to develop their own full length feature for the Cinema but can't get there because very few people will trust them to deliver (even though there are some exceptions). The fact that, essentially ONE AMERICAN tv channel has focused on quality doesn't make the whole medium suddenly worthy. GIVE ME A BREAK. Besides HBO we may have a couple of other worthy series but end of story. What else is on TV? 'X factor'? 'I'm-desperate-for-cash-coz-my-carreer-is-shite-coz-i'm-so shite-that-even-shite-Iceland's-dropped-my-contract-Get-me-outta-here?
And don't even get me started on the ultimately populistic 'Oh but TV's purpose is different it's to entertain I love X factor'. If you are entertained by x-factor I just feel very very very sorry for you. And you know what it's fine. Each his own. But don't come close to thinking that this brings to the world the quality that Cinema can bring. Aw, and sod the populistic PC shite. If you can actually think this, your'e just simply unbelieveably ignorant. (I wouldn't use the word bliss here). I can name 1000's of life-changing movies, and 1000s of life changing books. I can name probably 10's of life changing TV productions. And thes should be praised indeed. Not everything is shite on TV, but get real: These are the proportions we're talking about.
Also, I've seen a lot of arguments about how shit is Cinema today. I feel genuinely sad for cinema lovers who think this. It is true that the large chains are mostly playing commercial Hollywod shit. But please look further than your local chain, and you'll discover Perseppolis, the life of others, This is England, German cinema, French cinema, the world is full of Cinema gems out there. Business does get in the way of them because they are mjuch less approachable than X-Factor or 'Knocked-Up' and reaquire a little bit more initiation work than this shite. But if you don't put in a bit of effort that's where you'll be stuck. And then will become like the rest off them, trying to justify the quality of X-Factor. Pathetic. Posted on Nov 26 2008 10:50 - Report as inappropriate
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- Dill Darling said...
- Hi Dave. How can you say that “the only time television investigates other cultures is when a white guy from north London decides to take a boat trip down the Amazon”? What about all those endless news reports that go to all that trouble to fly to far-flung parts of Asia or Africa in the wake of some natural or man-made disaster, ploughing their way through the piles of bodies, just to let us know that among the 10,000 casualties, there were 12 Brits? Another of the many reasons I’m 100% with you. Found myself agreeing with all 10 of your statements and only one of Alexi’s (about comedy). Sorry Alexi, but you’re clutching at some scary straws – you sound like an ad for the Daily Mail: “up soap-watching and ‘bringing the country together over the Queen’s Jubilee’ middle England ra-ra-ra”. Yikes! I’ll stick with divided, thanks. Love cinema, rarely watch television other than, as you say Dave, to ‘switch off to’. That being said, much depends on one’s definition of cinema. Anything with ‘Bradgelina’ et al (and indeed most things stocked by the vile Blockbuster chain – the film equivalent of Tesco) counts as TV for me – with or without sticky floors! Posted on Nov 13 2008 21:16
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- Dion said...
- Brilliant. If ever there was a slap-down no-contest win in a debate, this is it. I sure like some easy TV, but this is a no-brainer. Posted on Nov 13 2008 20:02
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