70s to 90s cinema wasn't better by nostalgia: it was another industry model

70s to 90s cinema wasn't better by nostalgia: it was another industry model

A third-division hockey team, three brothers exchanging blows on ice, and a Paul Newman with nothing left to prove. This is how 'Rollerball' starts, a film unlikely to be funded today with its mix of comedy, violence, and disillusionment. It's no isolated case: the era from the 70s to the 90s produced cinema that embraced risks the current industry avoids with the discipline of a fund manager.

What those films had that are no longer made

The recurring debate on whether past cinema was better usually dies in the realm of nostalgia. But concrete examples support the thesis that it's not just memory. 'The Apartment' (1960), by Billy Wilder, is still cited as the culmination of his career: a bittersweet comedy about an office worker lending his flat to bosses for their trysts, with Jack Lemmon playing the ultimate loser. The film combines romance and bitterness without needing a shared universe.

The thesis that cinema died in the 90s

Among those discussing these decades, there's a current going beyond personal taste: art in general died in the 90s. The argument holds that from then on, everything is 'eclecticism and recycling without soul,' a symptom of cultural exhaustion comparable to late periods like Hellenistic or late Egyptian times: great technical mastery but no discoveries. The claim is blunt, but not without response. 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) serves as an example that the 90s could also invent their own language, with nonlinear narrative and sharp dialogue.

Pessimism as a genre: dystopias and disasters

The era also knew how to read the malaise of its time. 'Rollerball' describes a world where corporations control everything and violence is channeled through a brutal sport; a dystopia read today almost as a documentary. 'The Poseidon Adventure' (1972) is considered by many the peak of disaster cinema: a spectacle where an ensemble cast faces an overturned liner. Not surprisingly, the genre flourished during the oil crisis and institutional distrust.

European cinema daring to name the uncomfortable

While Hollywood consolidated its formulas, Europe continued exploring uncomfortable territories. 'Performance' (1970), with Mick Jagger in the middle of an artists' commune, blurred the boundaries between crime and counterculture. 'Nine Hours to Rama' (1963) approached Gandhi's assassination from political and religious tension. And let's not forget the influence of the Nouvelle Vague: Jean Seberg, with her boyish cut, became the face of a cinema wanting to break rules. In Spanish cinema, 'The Executioner' shows that black comedy could also discuss the death penalty. Even the surrealism of 1928, with 'The Shell and the Clergyman,' is rescued as a precursor of a cinema that never accepted labels.

The staggering fact

Among all the curiosities circulating about this era, one summarizes the level of acting demand: an actor won the Oscar with an eight-minute cameo, his first appearance after an accident disfiguring his face. That doesn't happen anymore. Or maybe it does, but in a streaming series no one remembers by the next month. And while some mourn cinema's death, others reclaim that 70s-90s cinema was the last great trench of an industry still believing in risk.