Netflix, FilmStruck, and Streaming Services' Problems with Film History

Scene from The Other Side of the Wind

For a lot of cinephiles, today is a very special occasion. Today is the day in which the long awaited Orson Welles film The Other Side of the Wind finally meets the light of day. Thanks to a lot of meticulous effort and the powers at Netflix, the film is currently available to stream online, including an additional documentary on the assembling of this perceptively lost film. With all of this said, there's a certain irony in the film being released by Netflix of all streaming services within the same month of the demise of FilmStruck. The Other Side of the Wind, at least aesthetically, is more suited to the classic and foreign cinema service that will be going belly-up on November 29, which will see a lot of Welles' other titles disappear. While this isn't exactly Netflix's fault, it may as well be because for those looking for great cinema in the vein of Welles, there's a good chance that it won't be there for much longer. 

The idea of Netflix being at all prestigious is a fairly new concept, starting with the 2015 drama Beasts of No Nation. While they have garnered a few nominations here and there, most notably with Mudbound, they're nowhere near as recognized as their competitors, specifically Amazon Prime - who has had a fantastic track record. It's in part because the studio has been the prime target for the complicated conversation regarding what cinema is in the modern era. When Okja premiered last year at Cannes Film Festival, the mere presence of a Netflix logo sent the audience into jeers. In a lot of ways, there's still issues with how Netflix distributes films theatrically: which is abundantly rare and usually hits niche markets. They're all about the "same day release" model that favors home streaming. It's not a bad thing, especially for those who don't live in the niche markets, but when Amazon Prime is releasing Beautiful Boy with strong per-screen averages leading into a wide release, it's all evidence that Netflix could be doing better.

Then again, Netflix's bread and butter in the past decade has shifted towards TV with such zeitgeist-defining shows as Orange is the New Black, Bojack Horseman, and Daredevil. As the progenitors of "binge watching" behavior, it makes sense for them to do TV that can be consumed in quick proximity, even if it raises a host of other questions about how much is too much TV. With that said, their shift into film hasn't been without controversy, in part because there seems to be so many movies released weekly that a strong percentage doesn't even get front page promotion when viewed on a computer. It also doesn't help that most get relegated to obscurity quickly, as too much programming means that nobody has time to discover the films - which in general have tepid reputations to begin with. Those few gems, such as Mudbound and The Meyerowitz Stories, do get an edge thanks to awards season, but good luck finding The Other Side of the Wind right away. What you will find in its place is a big ad for the Chris Pine vehicle Outlaw King.

In life, Orson Welles was notoriously fighting studios over various forms of control. A couple of his films, such as The Magnificent Ambersons, remain incomplete due to misjudgment of his work. It's in part why it's a shock that Netflix of all places would invest so much effort into making his incomplete final film into something presentable. For a streaming service that has gradually lost classic titles from licensing expiration (not to mention a diminishing Disney catalog that seemed revolutionary only three years ago), it doesn't make sense why they would invest in a 30+-year-old film featuring people who don't feature in a lot of their movies. You'd have to scroll by Adam Sandler's new stand-up special 100% Fresh to find The Other Side of the Wind, which is a small indicator of how much faith Netflix has in the project. Even as they team with prestigious filmmakers like Alfonso Cuaron, Martin Scorsese, and next Guillermo del Toro, there's still a sense that they don't care about the history of film but instead the ability to never leave an audience member without *something* to watch, even if it's something as expendable as The Cloverfield Paradox.

This is in part why FilmStruck was such a great service that might have suited Welles' mentality better. In an era where most entertainment is consumed digitally, FilmStruck provided a glimpse into the past with films and shorts going back to turn of the 20th century. There were incredible options, and the entertainment was often given context with documentaries and introductions that placed the work into a greater historical context. Even in terms of variety, Welles' work has far more options on FilmStruck than Netflix (though, to the latter's credit, they have THREE additional titles that includes the great The Third Man), which doesn't include any additional video essays breaking down the significance of the differing cuts of Mr. Arkadin that will be available for the rest of November. If just viewed as a chance to peruse the work of Welles, there's clearly incentive to watch FilmStruck - even if they don't have his latest film. It will add depth and appreciation to the artist who created what is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in history. It's so ubiquitous with the title that Citizen Kane is required viewing for people who love film as history - though don't expect to find it yet on Netflix.

To get into a deeper issue is the fact that because of the disposable nature of film on Netflix, where titles disappear and return like a Whack-A-Mole game, there isn't a chance to savor the world of Welles once you've watched The Other Side of the Wind. Sure, you could watch The Stranger and The Third Man after, but consider how limiting the classics menu becomes after that. You can't see the oeuvre of Welles in one place, nor get depth as to why he was considered a genius. If you want to explore the films that inspired him, it's even more impossible as Netflix doesn't have anything by even his american favorites, such as Charles Chaplin's City Lights or John Ford's Stagecoach, which Welles claims to have watched incessantly while making Citizen Kane. As much as classic westerns aren't everyone's cup of tea, having greater context for Welles would be appreciative. Netflix doesn't have City Lights or Stagecoach. FilmStruck currently does.

Considering that FilmStruck is going to set sail on November 29 (and not taking any new memberships), it's almost too late for people to have an easy access to film history, even that of the American studios. It's unclear what will happen when December rolls around and the service is gone. Even powerful cinephiles, which includes recent Oscar-winners Barry Jenkins and del Toro, have expressed interest in saving FilmStruck. But for now, the logical picture is that those wanting to see Ford and Chaplin's biggest hits, or even the smaller films for that matter, there's not long to do so. Sure, FilmStruck suffers from being a niche market that appeals to older cinema, but is that so bad? It was a refreshing alternative to Netflix's cramming dozens of movies a month down audiences' throats that were often inferior, forgettable, and likely to remain buried 12 pages deep in a few months.

So what exactly is there for the future of film? While Netflix appears to be doing something right - especially given the great reviews of Cuaron's Roma - it would have to take a big ordeal for it to be half as useful to film history as FilmStruck was in its brief run. Even if FilmStruck never sought to release films theatrically (though their co-financier, TCM, has been doing it successfully for years), they still put context to the history of film without burying old content that didn't matter. They organized by subcategories that were accessible. Considering that Okja got booed at Cannes, it's unlikely that the Netflix reputation will change overnight with The Other Side of the Wind. It may do them good to have Welles' name on the tin, but what is to stop this film from being forgotten in six months when it fails to get any Oscar glory (especially if they promote it as poorly as they currently have)? Welles fans will remember the film, but the average Netflix subscriber will probably just move onto the next show, believing that the film component is bad and thus The Other Side of the Wind isn't probably the Citizen Kane of Netflix releases. 

It is exciting to see Orson Welles get a respectful release, even if it's on home media. Unfortunately, it's a bit sad that the modern generation couldn't experience it on the big screen first. Had Amazon Studios released it, there's a good chance that it would have a decent marketing behind it and it may even open opposite Beautiful Boy and Suspiria with a decent amount of success. Instead, it's not even currently on the front page of Netflix... and the film hasn't even been out for 24 hours! As Netflix loses even more content to the foreboding Disney app, what's to stop this film from fading into obscurity? Without historical context, it's just another oddity for audiences looking for ways to kill two hours. That's not exactly what Welles was going for ever, not even in those random ads he narrated. He deserves some kind of lasting legacy, and it's unfortunately not featuring any traditional release that he would've been proud of.