Imagine getting 15 directors (individually) in the same room — from indie auteurs to Hollywood blockbuster helmers — and asking them each the same question: Cinema, is it a language about to get lost, an art form about to die?
In 1982, while at the Cannes Film Festival, Wim Wenders (who was debuting "Hammett") did just that. “Room 666” (which sounds a lot more terrifying than it is) chronicles the interviews Wenders conducted with 15 directors during the festival. To achieve as frank, genuine, and unadulterated answers as possible, he used the same exact camera and room setup for each session. What follows during his 43-minute film is some of the most honest, informed perspectives on the direction of film from over a dozen people entrenched in the industry.
Paul Morrissey (“Forty Deuce”) opens by answering with an unequivocal yes, “it’s obvious [cinema] is on the way out.” He elaborates, “the novel has been dead for a long time; people know that. Poetry...
