I realized in gauging reaction to the whole Ginger release in the U.S. what it is that bugs me about American life. It's the ruthlessness of the consumer culture. The idea that what makes the most money is right. Any idea that is thought to have a gold pot at the end of the road takes on a wholly unnatural life in the U.S.
It infects consumers with the idea that we need the next best, new thing. I'm as much a guilty party to this as well. Well, maybe I'm more victim than perp. I have this feeling I'll never know when I have what's good enough, because I'm caught up in this distinctly American Darwinian culture. Maybe that's the great American tragedy.
This problem infects the world of movies. Because of the power of media and marketing, and the economic incentives towards mass entertainment, true film art (and I'm not talking about artsy fartsy crap, which is still crap) becomes more and more difficult to both make and see. I realize this because my job recently was all about consumer marketing of movies, and thinking about movies in that way was extremely intuitive from a business perspective, but also sordid. As if a movie was a can of peaches.