Danny Leigh: "Digital technology saved a dying medium"

"The ritual of 35mm is gorgeous. But it's only a ritual. It's not the movie."

Article in The Guardian by Danny Leigh.

It's an argument we've heard before, and with which I largely agree: it is more satisfying to make a film (or a photograph) without artificially constraining yourself by the technology. Unfortunately, one of the article's specific examples backfires: comparing David Lynch's gorgeous, thoughtful analogue Mulholland Drive with his interminable and impenetrable digital Inland Empire. Had Lynch shot the latter on film, the constraints of the medium would have put an automatic check on the director's over-indulgence.