Should we welcome digital cinema?
Movies projected digitally are bright, and blemish-free. Yet they feel … odd.
Digital projection supplies a different experience than
photochemistry-based projection. The image is clear — eeriely so. But
it’s also less dense, less nuanced, and far less sensual than a
good-quality traditional film image. Digital projection seems to suit
thwacky-slammy pictures just fine. Action-adventure pix,
computer-animated films, blockbusters, and dumbo comedies should do
fine projected digitally. But quieter films, and especially films that
deal in mood, poetry, and tactility — movies like "Swimming Pool"
and "Last Tango in Paris" — would lose a lot. As far as I’ve been able
to tell, movies projected digitally don’t feel like what they’re sold
as: movies perfected. They feel like ultrabigscreen TV.
Here is the full discussion, which includes an analysis of the economics of digital conversion in the theater. Comments are open.