In 2009, when James Cameron released AvatarA science fiction epic shot in 3D and refined over a decade, the Canadian director heralds a new era for the 7th Art: that of 3D cinema, offering unprecedented fluidity of images and immersion in a hitherto unprecedented virtual world.
The promise then had seduced the public, and the film grossed more than 2 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. In France, 15 million spectators had rushed to the theaters. “I really wanted to see a 3D movie on the big screen,” recalls Guillaume, a fan from the beginning. “It was a fantasy. It was the promise of new horizons.”
Thirteen years later, cinemas have accelerated their transformation to digital, but the announced revolution has not occurred. past the surprise Avatarand the success of great shows like The life of Pi (2012) and Gravity (2013), public interest waned very quickly.
In 2011, when Hollywood was converting all of its blockbusters to 3D, a survey conducted for french cinema reveals that 80% of viewers are unhappy with the relief. In question, quite uncomfortable 3D glasses, which cause migraines in some viewers.
“Cinema is renewed through technology”
There is also a public misunderstanding of technology that seems more like a gimmick than a real technological breakthrough. For many, “the most impressive 3D experience of your life is still the Haribo ad,” jokes Marc Moquin, editorial director of revised and correctedwhose latest issue reviews the digital revolution of the 2000s.
When James Cameron popularized 3D, this technology was making a comeback for the third time. A first fashion was launched in the 1950s (with, in particular, The crime was almost perfect. by Alfred Hitchcock), followed by a second in the 1980s (with 3D jaws). The history of cinema has always been linked to technological progress.
“That progress also started, because if cinema did not evolve, it was in danger”, stresses the journalist Julien Dupuy. “Cinema differs from the other arts in that it is a technological art. It changes and renews itself through technology. It has always been like that, from the origins of cinema until today.”
Between 2009 and 2014, the relief experienced a golden age. “The relief has never known such exploitation”, enthuses this James Cameron specialist. But projection conditions weren’t always perfect: “We exchanged tips about the best rooms for 3D projection, because the displays didn’t make the screen bright enough and it was too dark.”
fake 3d
The success ofAvatar it was going to give rise to many opportunities to construct new images in the cinema. The opposite has happened: 3D has gone mainstream, but mainly for commercial reasons. “Alice in Wonderland (2010) by Tim Burton became as a result ofAvatar to increase the price at checkout”, recalls Marc Moquin.
“It was one of the worst 3D conversions I’ve ever seen, along with the one for the clash of titans (2010),” he adds. “It was made by people who just separated the background from the foreground to make fake 3D.”
“Nothing replaces filming in relief,” adds Julien Dupuy, still shaken by The walk (2015) by Robert Zemeckis, “one of the great relief films”. 3D conversion was also a business issue in China, where the public is fond of 3D and synthetic images. Luc Besson became like this Lucy (2014) in 3D for the Chinese market and met with great success.Poison (2018) suffered the same fate.
dizzying effect
Without achieving a resounding success at the box office, some films have been able to fully exploit the possibilities of 3D. “It’s like color and sound, it allows you to add rhetorical figures and a little more vocabulary to film linguistics”, summarizes Julien Dupuy.
Paradoxically, it was under the impetus of the veterans that 3D was best utilized on screen. Steven Spielberg (tintin2011), Ridley Scott (Prometheus2012), Francis Coppola (Among2012) and even Jean-Luc Godard (goodbye to language 2014) have been able to offer unique films of their kind. The same for Werner Herzog (The cave of lost dreams2010), Win Wenders (pineapple2011) and Martin Scorsese (Hugo Cabret2011).
“Hugo Cabret offers this vertiginous effect with Martin Scorsese that returns the films of Méliès in 3D”, explains Alexandre Mathis, chief editor of Revus & Corrigés. “Werner Herzog creates a similar vertigo by showing drawings in 3D that are more than 15,000 years old. The film shows that there are temporal paradoxes in this cave that we don’t suspect.”
return to the filmstrip
Some cult blockbusters (the phantom menace, Jurassic Park, top gun) were treated with their 3D conversion, with mixed results. Only the embossed version of titanic (1997), supervised by Cameron himself, won over a wide audience. Released in 2012, for the centenary of the sinking, Titanic 3D grossed over $341 million in revenue. “It was great,” recalls Julien Dupuy.
“Obviously I expected a lot from the shipwreck scenes, but the scene I remember is the one where the mother puts the corset on Rose. Her social oppression, I felt it in a visceral way. I had the impression that she was corseted” . Me! We didn’t understand that one of the challenges of 3D was less the great spectacle than the intimacy we could have with the characters.”
With the exception of Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity), no director of the new generation has taken over 3D. On the contrary, everyone dreams of movies and practical effects. “They dream of an older cinema. With the advent of digital, they were nostalgic for something that would disappear, for an aesthetic that we would no longer have”, explains Alexandre Mathis.
“Today we are reaching a point of absurdity where directors will make sure not to use digital effects, when their film is full of them!” Julien Dupuy sneers. The problem is also economic, analyzes Marc Moquin: “Shooting in native 3D is very expensive. Few directors in Hollywood can afford it. One of the only ones would be Christopher Nolan, but he doesn’t want to.”
Will HFR save 3D?
The real challenge now is not 3D, but HFR (“High Frame Rate”). The film is no longer projected at 24 frames per second, but at 48, offering a more fluid image. “HFR limits the strobe effect that can be experienced during a 3D projection. The goal is to make action scenes more readable,” specifies Alexandre Mathis.
But this excessively realistic representation, tested by Peter Jackson in The Hobbit (2012-2014) and by Ang Lee in A day in the life of Billy Lynn (2016) and Gemini Man (2019), did not convince the public. “HFR is only useful for 3D,” says Marc Moquin. “Until now no one has proven that it is good for 2D movies.” The process is still very expensive.
For now, not all theaters are equipped to host it. In France, you will have to go to UGC cinemas to discover Avatar – The channel in HFR. “avatar 2 It will be successful, but in what format?” asks Alexandre Matthis. “What made Cameron hugely successful is also that they were family movies. Will the families go to see Avatar in 3D in an age of inflation?
Especially since IMAX has recently established itself as the flagship premium format to discover this type of great spectacle in the cinema. It remains to be seen if the blockbuster will relaunch the relay. “There will be a new fashion for 3D,” says Marc Moquin. “Then the question remains: how long will this fad last?”
Source: BFM TV
