When people talk about “mainstream”, they mean the taste of the masses. Many filmmakers fear for their uniqueness and want to distance themselves from this popular taste at all costs. But how justified is their fear? And is there perhaps a middle ground to make films that are original and still have a chance of finding favor with a large audience?
Most films are not as good as they could be. Especially in Germany. This is due to the political framework, the production constraints in the film industry, and finally also to the filmmakers themselves. Every medium has its mainstream. Sometimes we also speak of popular culture:
- Mainstream media: most popular news media
- Blockbusters: most popular films
- Pop music: most popular songs
In the film sector, this refers to blockbusters such as Marvel’s THE AVENGERS. The worldwide box office charts clearly show year after year what audiences want to see. However, the most popular genres are hardly produced here in Germany. In my view, this is mainly due to the fact that many German filmmakers have a problem with the blockbuster film. They do not want to support the mainstream because they see it as a threat to their artistic integrity.
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Arthouse instead of mainstream
Mainstream is always under attack.
– BILL GATES
In the 90s it was still called art or commerce, but is that really a contradiction? This black-and-white thinking leads many creators to turn away from the audience. Of course, most mainstream films are flat, clichéd, and superficial. Of course! But that applies to most arthouse films as well. Arthouse is a term that is often used against mainstream, but has undergone a significant change in meaning.
Video: Are screenwriters artists or service providers?
Originally, arthouses referred to certain arthouse cinemas in the USA that showed films other than the studio productions of the time: European and Asian cinema, indie films, but also film classics came together in a colorful, diverse program. In a time when major film producers themselves make arthouse films, it refers to a very specific style with its own conventions and clichés.
I have often heard that we Germans do not have to make films like the Americans. What many forget is that the Americans have not been making truly American cinema for a long time — they make world cinema.
They have learned the lesson of opening up and allowing changes from the outside. Globalization is irreversible, and those who are not willing to integrate into this world culture, and to come to terms with it, will eventually have no way to do so.
In Germany, the Arthouse tradition still sees itself as a counter-movement to the mainstream. Instead of one main character, there are several main characters. Instead of a strong plot, there is an anti-plot. Instead of a focus on a character’s drive, there is a focus on the context. Furthermore, the claim is that this makes the films more realistic. It is fully intentional that these films do not appeal to the broad mass. All of this is a pure reaction to mainstream film and is meant to deliberately offend the audience.
Mainstream is not unique
It doesn’t matter if it’s an Artstream film or a Mainhouse film. Cinema is a mass medium and cinema can only survive economically if it is made for the audience.
– TIL SCHWEIGER
Filmmakers do not want to just set their own accents. They want to go their own way, not follow well-trodden paths. They want to create their own personal art, not someone else’s. There is much to be said for the idea that finding one’s own voice and implementing it is what makes an artist successful. On the other hand, this desire is a clear trap:
Mainstream is not unique
It doesn’t matter if it’s an Artstream film or a Mainhouse film. Cinema is a mass medium and cinema can only survive economically if it is made for the audience.
– TIL SCHWEIGER
Filmmakers do not want to just set their own accents. They want to go their own way, not follow well-trodden paths. They want to create their own personal art, not someone else’s. There is much to be said for the idea that finding one’s own voice and implementing it is what makes an artist successful. On the other hand, this desire is a clear trap:
- They have to constantly compare themselves to others
- They have to reinvent the wheel over and over again
- They can never be unique enough
- They cannot make the compromises that are essential to filmmaking
- In trying to break with the mainstream, they usually resort to the same second-grade clichés as their Arthouse colleagues
Mainstream is not rebellious
If you know who the bad guy is, the day has structure.
– VOLKER PISPERS
As rebels, they see themselves in the political responsibility to overthrow the present system. But how do they want to overthrow the system of mass taste if not with its own weapons? Very few anti-mainstream artists manage to reach an audience at all. And for whom, if not for an audience, are films made? Rebellion for the sake of rebellion has never been an answer. We must ask ourselves what we want to achieve in the long term. As individuals and as a community. Only when we know that can we develop a plan to achieve our goals.
Mainstream does not want to teach
If you want to change the world, start with yourself.
– MAHATMA GANDHI
Many filmmakers seem to believe that the audience has to deal with their work. I have also experienced that no one wanted to see my film. Yes, that hurts quite a bit. But you have to live with it and recognize that it may not have been the right film. Film as a moral educational institution does not mean presenting something to the audience that it has to swallow on its own.
Mainstream tolerates fewer technical flaws
The last point is the most important to me: Technical flaws are often not perceived as such, but interpreted as artistic freedom. As in all professions, most artists learn their most important techniques in the first year, and after that, they hardly work on themselves.
Is this art or can it go?
– Unknown
Artists, however, have the perfect excuse: It’s art. It has to be convoluted and difficult to interpret. It doesn’t have to resonate with the audience, it stands for itself. For those who believe these statements, there is only artistic stagnation. Those who think this way don’t have to prove themselves to anyone, so they can leave their work just as it came out of them: raw and unpolished. Keep your darlings, or something like that. The pressure to find an audience – to make one’s statement clearer, to make the film more gripping – that leads to better quality, is completely ignored. Sometimes, it seems to me, one can really make life very easy for oneself.
If you want to read more, here are some film-related topics:
- Myth & Mythology
- Toxic Realism
- Arthouse Aesthetics
- Movie Diversity
- German Movies
- Movies without Screenplay
- Movies without Story
- Female Movie Characters
A few words about me: As a Writer-Director, I write my own stories. I wrote the eBook The Ultimate Reading Guide for students as a learning aid. I also give Writing Seminars and Film Workshops.