CINEMA BuzzFEED - 21 April 2014

CHINA GETS 'STONED'

Stone at Beijing Film Festival

Never one to mince words, in a surprise statement during a presentation at the Beijing International Film Festival, Oliver Stone told the stunned audience that China needs to confront its past regarding Mao Zedong and the realities of what occurred during the Cultural Revolution. "This is necessary if China's cinema is to be taken seriously" Stone told the attendees.

Stone's comments caused a real problem for the attending guests when he began to discuss the failure of Chinese film makers to confront the true legacy of the Chinese Communist Party and China's revered founding father, Mao. "Mao has been lionized in dozens and dozens of Chinese films, but never criticized", said Stone, "it's about time to make a realistic movie about Mao and the Cultural Revolution. We need to see the history.  These things happened, they affected everyone in this room."

Stone's pronouncements, which were received with much controversy by the Chinese press, are not foreign to his outspoken reputation.  The Cultural Revolution was a social-political movement set in motion by Mao.  It's goal was to re-introduce and re-invigorate the Communist doctrine into Chinese society. It also gave Mao the opportunity to reassess his power after the dismal failure of The Great Leap Forward which effectively paralyzed China politically and was an enormous economic disaster.
Started in 1966, the Cultural Revolution caused widespread turmoil, concluding a mass purge of many middle-class Chinese (estimates put the death toll at over 30 million). The Revolution officially ended in 1976 after Mao's death.  By 1980, the policies of Mao's Revolution had been entirely reversed and capitalist based economic policies were instituted.

"We're talking about the essential essence of this nation, of  how it was built, this whole century, you've not dealt with it", Stone told the audience.

4K Resolution Buzz

Talk about 4K resolution is everywhere, with products for the consumer, commercial, and cinema markets. So what is really involved in the deployment and from who, where, and when will the demand for 4k come.

What are the biggest challenges in delivering relevant 4k content?  Producing 4k content is expensive whether for cinemas or TV.  The equipment necessary to produce the 4k image is expensive, so there is a scarcity of this equipment and the expertise to use it.  At the exhibition end, most of the digital cinema projectors and servers can not reproduce 4k images without costly upgrades. Additionally, the technology does not support the resolution in its native format. Instead, software systems using various compression methods and scaling techniques are utilized which effectively diminish  the benefits of the 4k image.

4k has a way to go, be it for the consumer, commercial, or cinema markets. Technical hurdles, cost, and adoption by end users all need to be addressed so I don't see Hollywood jumping on the 4k bandwagon in a big way for the foreseeable future.  These realities, coupled with the fact that 8k resolution has been introduced really puts a damper on 4k.

Jim Lavorato