“Roma” director Alfonso Cuarón at the Golden Globes. (Mark Rolston)
After winning Golden Globes for best foreign language film and best director for “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón fielded a question backstage in the press room about whether Netflix — which released Cuarón’s film theatrically and, shortly after, on its streaming platform — might be contributing to the death of independent cinema.
“How many theaters do you think a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish, without stars … how big a release do you think it would be in a conventional theatrical release?” the director asked heatedly. “I’m having a way bigger release than that.”
The market has a limited taste for foreign-language films, Cuarón said. “What was amazing is that Netflix went through all the filters — the fact that it’s Mexican, in Spanish, black and white” — none of that was an issue, he said. The company was focused on “the core of what this film is about,” he said. “And I’m just so grateful the amazing effort they made to bring this film to the world but also in the theatrical world.”
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times