Whatever they are: first of all cinema on the big screen which is also suffering from a serious crisis of cinemagoers. Then all the possible visions that our eyes can appreciate: from those of the real world made up of panoramas, landscapes, paintings, works of art and compositions of all kinds. Last but not least, all the "electronic" visions: from linear, digital, analogue television to streaming, broadband, on demand television seen on a SuperHD display or a mobile phone, or on a PC or tablet. Enjoy watching movies, dramas, documentaries, concerts, commercials, trailers, tutorials on Youtube or short Tik Toks.
The year that we have just left behind has marked deep signs in our thoughts and also the "visions" that accompanied it have been affected. As we have mentioned, the cinema has suffered severely: according to data processed by Cinetel and reported by Sole24 Ore, compared to pre-Covid, the overall drop in cinema attendance is around 70% which, conversely, is reflected in the dizzying growth of subscriptions to the various streaming platforms.
Covid is a global tragedy that affects the clinical and health aspects but also the psychological and social ones and the "cinema" could not fail to be influenced by it. And no other title could be imagined capable of summarizing the great fear that we are all experiencing in the form of a metaphor. It's about Don't Look Up directed by Adam McKay recently available on Netflix just to close with the past year and inaugurate the new one. Pay attention to the dates: the project starts in November 2019, a few days before the start of the pandemic (February/March 2020) Netflix buys the rights, filming starts in November of the same year and ends in February 2021. The world was just entering in the era of vaccines, of the hope of tackling the pandemic when the "variants" began to turn around to arrive at today's Omicron which is so frightening.
What does the film tell us? The plot is simple and in many respects already known: a young astronomer spots a meteor heading towards the earth. She confronts her professor (a very good one Leonardo Di Caprio) and deduce that the impact with the asteroid will be devastating for the whole planet. They try to alarm the US authorities and reach as far as its President (the usual excellent Meryl Streep) who, on the other hand, do not seem to take the warning launched by the two scientists very seriously, also because they are dealing with important electoral political deadlines. There are many analogies with our days. The story proceeds on different tracks: the first refers to the credibility and authority of scientists who are not given due consideration. The second is the media one where an important television broadcast mocks the supporters of the imminent catastrophe. The third is that of public opinion which is divided between those who "everything will be fine" and incite us to "don't look up" because the asteroid will not hit the earth and those who instead believe in it and hopefully wait for someone to do something to prevent impact. The "someone" is a wealthy entrepreneur who imagines he can exploit the enormous amount of precious minerals that make up the comet and organizes the launch of some missiles with the aim of changing their trajectory. As usual, we don't tell you how it ends even if it's easy to guess.
The film belongs to a consolidated and flourishing science fiction genre tradition that always sees the same script: the Earth attacked and threatened by aliens, by mysterious seeds or by planetary objects destined to impact our continents. Countless titles were proposed around the 60s, in the midst of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR and the political metaphor that was drawn from them was easy. At first it was just science fiction and then, in recent times, it has evolved into the genre of "catastrophism" of various kinds. However, all the films had the same positive epilogue and even where the Earth was already destroyed, some survivors reappeared from its ashes who guaranteed the continuation of life on the planet and ... they all lived happily ever after again. In this case Don't Look Up proposes another ending and “everything will not be fine” as well as in the film some characters will repeat without too much conviction.
The film is therefore fully placed in this historical moment and well captures all the many difficulties. The pace of the narration is often ironic and mocking without taking anything away from the dramatic aspect. It is placed in a middle ground where the prophets of doom and the hopefuls of a bright future coexist and face each other, not always peacefully. The media dynamics of the story and, in particular, of television which in this case is represented as the only useful reference for knowing what is happening is very striking among the experts, among those who study social and anthropological relations . It is interesting to observe that Netflix has also created a sort of "candid camera" to observe what effects a catastrophic news of this kind can cause to people casually interviewed.
Certainly Don't Look Up leads us to reflect on what is happening around us today and when cinema achieves this effect it is always welcome regardless of its technical quality. It will then be possible to discuss whether or not it is permissible to be optimistic or pessimistic, but this reflection belongs to other fields, science above all, where cinema can only limit itself to narrating.
