OFF THE TOP SCORSESE BLASTS ‘BUSINESS’ ETHOS

Martin Scorsese has blasted the movie industry for being more focused on “business” and on “content” being produced for streaming companies. The legendary director, 78, shown, whose last movie The Irishman streamed on Netflix, says streaming movies has had a negative impact on cinema, which he says is being “systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator, ‘content.’” In Harper’s Magazine, he says: “As recently as 15 years ago, the term ‘content’ was heard only when people were discussing the cinema on a serious level, and it was contrasted and measured against ‘form.’ “Then, gradually, it was used more and more by the people who took over media companies, most of whom knew nothing about the history of the art form, or even cared enough to think they should. “In the movie business, which is now the mass visual entertainment business, the emphasis is always on the word ‘business,’ and value is always determined by the amount of money to be made from any given property.”