Chalamet ballet thing
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Anonymous
That’s not what he said. He said he saw a person bragging about not having kids and thought that was bleak. I too would find a person bragging about not having kids bleak, just as I would find a person bragging about kids bleak. Why brag about your choice?? Some people think their purpose is to have kids, some don’t. Neither needs to brag about it. |
Anonymous
And we're talking about him. What we're not talking about is the last opera everyone went to and how much they enjoyed it. Because nobody is going to the opera. |
Anonymous
+1. All those people who sit on opera and ballet boards SHOULD be worried that their audiences are diminishing. They’re failing at their jobs, and are angry at Chalamet for highlighting their failures. Meanwhile the hardworking artists are getting paid pennies. Instead of being ashamed of themselves, they are shooting the messenger. Talk about punching down. |
Anonymous
Weinstein was positively recognized by his Hollywood peers for years. So was Woody Allen, and Roman Polanski. Hollywood is disgusting. Arts are in serious trouble right now, yet what is Hollywood doing about it? Nothing. Chalamet made a correct point, in a stupid way. |
Anonymous
Again, you seem to be under the impression that people in ballet don't understand they are dealing with diminishing audiences and cultural relevancy. THEY KNOW. It is one of the most frequent topics of conversation for the boards of these companies and for the companies themselves. Everyone feels it. Everyone knows. There are no people in ballet or opera who think the latest production of Gisele or La Traviata is pretty much the same as the new Dune movie. They aren't stupid. It's punching down because these communities are already well aware that they are fighting for the survival of these art forms, and Chalamet is in a position to help or lift them up, or even just be neutral, and instead he's making some offhand comment about how irrelevant and dying they are in the middle of a "town hall" with Matthew McConoughey, which he was invited to not because he's so smart and has such trenchant things to say about the state of the world or the state of art, but because he is a recognizable name. It is 100% punching down. He didn't say anything that people in ballet/opera don't already know, but he said it in a way that was rude and condescending for absolutely no reason other than to make the point that his chosen art form is in a *slightly* healthier economic state (if he doesn't think film has its own issues, HE is the stupid one). |
Anonymous
So if they know, what are they doing anything about it? Chalamet is annoying, but you know what? He brought a lot of people into the theater to see a stupid irrelevant ping pong movie. In terms of box office, it was one of the few outright successful movies of the year. The film industry needs more people like him to survive, and so do ballet and opera. |
Anonymous
The fact that you don't even know what ballets, operas, and symphonies do to attract audiences mean you, like Chalamet, have nothing useful to contribute to the conversation. Also, if the art you are making is "stupid" and "irrelevant" who cares if a bunch of people pay to watch it? |
Anonymous
Whatever ballet and opera are currently doing to attract audiences isn’t working, which is the entire point of the conversation. |
Anonymous
| Ballet and opera remind me of figure skating, in that people most people don’t watch figure skating outside the Olympics. But at least figure skating has this platform every 4 years to remind people that it exists, and can be exciting, so young people are drawn to it that way. |
Anonymous
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Can we move on? Enough on analyzing Chalamet’ intent. This happened with that Bob Dylan movie—a few people that spent pages upon pages trying to convince us all that we were stupid and lazy if we did not agree.
He did not win the award. He knows this process involves certain norms. He criticized those close to the community. Overall, his brand is suffering. Let’s move on. |
Anonymous
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He’s said it at least three times in the past, one other time being on the Graham Norton show. I can’t remember the third, but saw a compilation.
The issue is his H U G E ego. He’s not that great of an actor, but he thinks he is. He thinks he’s above a centuries old art form. That’s the issue. |
Anonymous
Oh please, these centuries old art forms have been sneering at people for ages. What have they done to stay relevant and accessible lately? |
Anonymous
The are art forms that are inherently disadvantaged in modern day culture. They are most impactful in person, not on screen and definitely not on smart phone screens. They are largely long form in a world with a tiny attention span. They are dependent on the expertise of artists (not just dancers and singers but also musicians, choreographers, costume and set designers) who have honed their craft over decades, in a world where everyone and their brother want to be able to claim expertise on TikTok after watching a few videos. There are modern ballets and modern operas, but the struggle to find audiences with young, general audiences because these art forms are inherently ill suited to modern sensibilities. They have social media accounts and there are ballet and opera influencers. They bring performances on smaller scales into communities that may not have seen these art forms before. They travel. They put ballet and opera on streamers and show them in movie theaters. They collaborate with pop stars and movie directors to try and find ways to make these art forms relevant to new audiences. But they are fighting a tidal wave. These art forms, to actually survive, require people to buy tickets, get dressed, go to the theater, and sit in the dark to watch a story told without words, or in another language, or that might be challenging or strange. When ballets and operas have tried to change the art form to modernize it, they wind up with a fleeting new audience who doesn't stay committed, and these experiments often turn off devoted fans who presently form their entire financial support. These art forms are dying because they are ill suited for the modern world and modern sensibilities. The ridiculous thing about Chalamet's statement is that he said it smugly as though his own art form isn't next on the chopping block. He said it with the ignorant confidence of a young person who presumes that film will handily weather the shift to streaming, the closure of thousands of movie houses, the consolidation of production companies, and the incursion of AI, and that he will be left standing at the end with a job and a fan base. Good effing luck, Timmy, especially if your attitude towards the art forms that have met those fates before yours is "too bad so sad." He is a moron, and so are you for not understanding all this. |
Anonymous
The idea that you think ballet and opera have been "sneering" at you shows how ignorant you are. Sure, there are ballet and opera fans and patrons who have always been snobs. You'll find people like that supporting films and music too. But the art forms themselves do not "sneer." On the contrary, the actual artists in these disciplines have been innovating for centuries, and much of the entertainment you now consume owes its origins to those innovations. |
Anonymous
I see you have never met the regular attendees or people who sit on the boards and guilds. Generally loathsome people. |