Almodóvar
says cinema is suffering a "creative crisis"

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar--whose latest film, Volver, is screening in competition at the Cannes Film Festival--says that international cinema is suffering a "creative crisis." Expatica.com reports that, in an interview with French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Almodovar noted, "In Europe, as well as in the United States, for some time film has been going through a real creative crisis, without doubt the most serious in its history. It's rather paradoxical, given that the crisis is occurring when the technical advances are extraordinary." Looking at this year's Academy Award nominees, he observed that one can't fail "to note that the [quality] level is incredibly low, while--in contrast--there are always very good actors." He bemoans the lack of attention paid to scripts in an era where films are apparently green-lighted on the basis of stars and special effects, specifically citing Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Almodovar said that film's screenplay "is, as far as I'm concerned, a model of a script impossible to present to a producer. It's built on an idea, just one, that repeats and repeats and repeats without ceasing, and everything else is completely unwarranted." (The Advocate)