French actress Sophie Marceau said Wednesday the growing appetite for content created by new media such as YouTube and cable television poses a threat to creative and original filmmaking. Speaking at a French film festival news conference in Singapore, the “Braveheart” and James Bond actress said the need to feed popular new media platforms may cause filmmakers to make uninspired and uniform movies.
“The only thing that I'm a little bit afraid of is the uniformity, the standardization of movies because it's so accessible now,” Marceau, 46, said.
“I think cinema should also sometimes bring new ideas, open people's eyes on certain subjects or realities. A movie is not just a movie, you know,” she added.
“Making movies ... OK so what? To fill the cable TVs and YouTube? No. I think behind that it should be meaningful, it should be a real point of view from a director, from somebody who absolutely wants to say something.”
Marceau was in Singapore to promote her latest film, the romantic French comedy “Happiness Never Comes Alone.”
New media platforms offering video content such as YouTube have seen a surge in popularity in recent years, helped along by the increasing prevalence of tablet computers and smartphones equipped with video-streaming capabilities.
YouTube boasts more than 800 million unique visitors who watch over 4 billion hours of video each month, its website states. Users also upload 72 hours of video every minute.