RETURN TO TRUFFAUT
Reunion Newsletter [4.10.25]
Come to our party April 23rd. Announcing some more stuff soon too:
April 23: Magazine Non Grata & Reunion: The Dumb Phone [RSVP]
If the film industry recognizes what’s been, it can recognize what it is, and build something beautiful again. It wouldn’t even be very difficult. It takes self awareness though.
I was struck by this statement about Jarmusch and Almodovar in an article about storytelling for brands. There was an overview of how filmmakers can work with brands, how it’s more like a studio assignment than a thing you walk around pitching to different partners hoping for alignment. Unless you’re Jarmusch or Almodovar, but the article referenced how there aren’t many of those. Fair. Got me thinking about why they are who they are. And how they became.
I’ve talked a ton lately about how the film world needs to go back to pre-1975. I think the thought first crossed my mind rewatching Day for Night. Truffaut wasn’t a rich man when making that, but he lived extremely well.
SIDEBAR: It’s funny because it wasn’t the timing that made me think of this idea, rather the filmmaking lifestyle portrayed in the narrative, however, it’s also a 1973 film. And he’s the same Francois Truffaut who would mark the ultimate transition of this time period by literally being in the follow up—Close Encounters—to the movie that defines the timeline I speak of—Jaws. Truffaut defines everything I talk about here, symbolically and literally, his appearance being a semiotic wink by Spielberg to the inner thoughts and feelings behind this work, and literally a guy who made a bunch of extra money for being in this new thing the movie industry generated, which would become its climax and denouement…the ‘blockbuster.’ If we want to get crazy with it, we can go back and trace Truffaut as laying the template for this transition even further, by tying this literal and symbolic thread together academically for the first time with his own work Truffaut / Hitchcock, whose premise essentially gave us the idea that commercial filmmaking could also be the highest art form. We credit them, the Cahiers gang, with the ‘auteur’ theory, but that’s its wider, less credited, application. Rounding out the thread would be those Instagram reels that circulate increasingly as Spielberg mounts his Disclosure Day revival of all of this, where ‘creators’ showcase Spielberg’s expert blocking technique. Don’t think those are organic, that’s the same thing as Geese. Oh, I’ll mention that too. Anyway.
It’s none of that that makes me write this, just the characters in Truffaut’s film Day for Night. But as I started typing, I realized the rest of the connections. Crazy.
END SIDEBAR. ONWARD!!!
Truffaut wasn’t rich in 1973 when he made Day for Night. The lifestyle portrayed in the film was scrappy. They had to solve problems, figure out economic solutions to creative and practical problems. There wasn’t a studio executive ready to send the jet to get them the costume or whatever. It makes me think of Fosse / Verdon’s portrayal of the making of 1972’s Cabaret in the Hulu series with Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams. If you compare that to actual contemporaneous Day for Night, it even appears laughably robust.
Films seemed like art projects back then. They took on the life around them, and generated a life of their own. Everyone seems, in the diegesis of the film, to respect that. To live in awe of that. The heart of the story is the romance around this process. Everyone in the movie bows to this. There is no hubris. They each resoundingly live their own experience, bring together those experiences, and understand that a new behemoth will arise from that alchemy. Nobody is to know what it will be, much less control it.
The reward is not some fixed idea. The reward is the life. They need to make a living wage like anyone else. The ones in charge grow to make more, live with disposable income, maybe investable income to grow their own versions. The super successful ones will grow to be relatively rich. Not rich like magnates who sell cigarettes or oil. But financially comfortable for life, and more importantly, embodying a lifestyle that rewards significantly on top of that.
That’s the point of it all, the lifestyle that the art life rewards the committed with.
The brand article made me think about how 73 year old Jim Jarmusch and 76 year old Pedro Almodovar got to the place where they could dictate that a brand like Saint Laurent would back their projects regardless of how the films aligned with the brand’s marketing calendar and vision.
These guys never made a big movie. I imagine they have millions of dollars at this point in their lives, likely own a home or two, and will pass down some cash to their families when the time comes, but they’re not rich rich. David Lynch wasn’t that rich, and I imagine these guys have less than him. Maybe Almodovar a little more. I don’t know.
But the point is, in the brand article, they are referenced as being at the top of this pyramid, and these are not crazy wealthy people who can invest in things or live lavish lifestyles.
Well not exactly.
Actually, in reality, they do live lavish lifestyles.
They’ve lived lavish, enviable lifestyles since the 1980s. Not because 1984’s Stranger than Paradise or 1988’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, arguably their respective breakouts, broke box office records. But because these guys are the coolest.
The rewards around art, filmmaking, have never been about capital gain. Not about $$$. Not about cash. It’s about the ancillary benefits. I guarantee Jim Jarmusch has flown on many private jets, but he’s never paid for one. Pedro Almodovar is dressed by the fanciest couturiers on earth, for a fraction of the cost of a regular mortal, if any. The meals these men have eaten are likely some of the most legendary in their time. Most importantly, the hangs. The privilege of living in a state, surrounded by the people they’re most energized by, focused on ideas they’re most engaged with. Their schedules are built around their particular personal whims. Their reality is constructed to their vision as much as the wealthiest most powerful CEO on earth.
Of course I paint a utopian picture of the filmmaker lifestyle. Scorsese, a much wealthier man than these, speaks openly and regularly, of still needing to pitch his movies at this stage of life. I think there’s a caveat there in that he chooses to make $250 million dollar movies. If Scorsese was down to make even $50 million dollar movies, I think he would have partners and suitors lined up around the block. I know even with Palme D’Or and Golden Lion in tow, nothing is promised for Jarmusch and Almodovar. I know their lives are still full of meetings and pitches and strategy and compromise.
But the rewards, the life, it’s been there since the beginning. The meaning. The fruit.
The reward is the privilege that every day matters for these people. They sought out a vision, and their struggles, at their worst, are in pursuit of that vision. Their own. Nobody else’s. What a beautiful thing. A compass that lives inside. Nobody they need to align to, no consensus required. They can read the trades, or they can just wake up and have their coffee & cigarettes, talk to their friend, hatch an idea, call another friend, make it happen. They’ve…in various scales and affects…lived this way since their youths.
This is the reward of the art life. Their bank accounts never compared to actual bankers or even studio execs, but their lives are much richer.
That’s what pre-1975 film world was. Jaws exploded that into greater capital possibility. But also broke something.
Pre-Jaws, pre-1975, there were a few super rich people from the film industry. A few. Who could buy boats and whatnot. Studio heads, the most successful filmmakers of all time, the biggest marquee stars in the world. A few. People did not get into filmmaking to buy boats. Houses maybe, but not boats.
With Spielberg, and afterwards Lucas, and to round it out in an obviously different way Coppola, this became everyone’s goal. Film offered the possibility of multiples. Of making a film for $5mm and generating $500 million. And owning significantly percentages of that. A few years later, it offered the ancillary rewards of a narrative universe that encompassed toys and lifestyles and everything else to eventually generate $4 billion dollars. Since 1975, this is what everyone’s been chasing. Not everyone, but enough people to define the system. We live in a system that must recognize and build around the individuals seeking to generate $500mm movies and $4bb companies for themselves. The tech industry only inflated this, with Netflix worth $431.04 billion at the time I write this. Again, not everyone is in it for that, but we all live in the world constructed by the people who seek it.
Before 1975…it was different.
That’s what we need to go back to. Lemme clarify, that’s what we’re going back to whether we like it or not, if we are lucky. Ok lemme say it different. If we don’t go back to this, we’re f*cked.
Pre-1975….the film industry was made up of…
A few could buy yachts.
Many could buy houses.
Everyone could afford rent.
All of these tiers lived a more lavish lifestyle than people who did anything else…because…it’s showbiz baby. The movies. Nothing is cooler than the movies. Not even rock-n-roll.
The art life is the best life. Living in a state of expressing oneself, it’s the dream. Not everyone activates that, but of course, every human being who ever lived…would prefer in a perfect world…to live in a state of constant self-expression, to be the main character, to have their individuality be worthwhile in every way.
Crew persons had stable jobs, by no means wealthy, but they had a blast. They had amazing perks, and again, everything meant something. They enjoyed what they were creating. Wearing the crew jacket for, I don’t know, Michael Mann’s Thief, like if you came into my bar wearing that jacket, and I asked you where you got it, and you told me you gripped on that movie, drinks are on me, and I’d be honored to be regaled by your stories for as long as you’d be generous to share. Film offered, as Sinners hilariously lambasted the fallacy of, ‘fellowship and love.’ But actually.
The yacht of a film producer was wayyyyy cooler than the yacht of some finance bro. The yacht of a film producer goes to Cannes and has Leo doing coke with underage girls. If that’s their bag.
The house of the filmmaker is probably the best deal on the market with a waived fee by a realtor they’re friends with who gets invited to their premieres, and includes interior design by the fanciest artisans on earth at a fraction of the cost.
These people get to go to Venice and Cannes as the highest VIPs. They get private tours of Versailles. They get to sit in the Sistine Chapel alone and think if they ask. They get personal visits with the Dalai Lama.
And they’re financially stable. Truffaut never made billions, but he was fine, and he lived beautifully, surrounded by beauty.
That’s the world we need to return to. Get rid of the people fetishizing billion dollar company exits. Get rid of the people who bring a VC model to a film slate. The entire thing needed to be restructured to fit the new world. It’s done now. We understand what the new system is. By this time next year, it’ll be settled. Zaslav will have rode off into the sunset with his billion. Ellisons will have dominion over the most important film studios in history. Netflix will be the most valuable moving image entity in history. That’s it. There will be no more billionaires made. Not in this time at least. Not for a long time. That’s ok. Nobody needs a billion dollars. Especially not from movies. Movies are rewarding enough. Make a million dollars from movies. A million dollars is really really cool.
This is not a collapse. This is a correction. Movies were around for a long long time before Jaws. Movies will be around for a long long time after Warner and Paramount merge. There were eight major studios at the peak of the studio system. There are arguably nine now. The form changed. The companies changed.
The important stuff stayed the same.
Go to a movie this weekend.
Pick a crowded showtime.
If you want broad, get the last weekend Project Hail Mary plays IMAX. If you want to see youths, check Mario. If you want adults talking about adult things, go to a theater where people stand in the lobby and chat after and see The Drama. [for me, it’s Cache at the Paris]
NOTHING IS MORE IMPACTFUL THAN MOVIES. I promise. Still.
Nothing.
We’ve come around to a time where I think everyone knows the people who told you during pandemic that people didn’t want to leave their couches anymore…they were full of sh*t. This was nonsense. People like people. They like being around others. They like gathering, sharing experiences, understanding and being understood. Movies deliver that unlike anything else. Movies are still the peak of culture.
The problem has never been the movies, it’s been all the junk surrounding em. Make great movies, and the entire system will right itself. Build it, they will come. Stop worrying about the market, how fraught the system is. Don’t respond to the problems and parameters; GET MORE AMBITIOUS! Don’t build your audience or focus on the business plan before story or whatever. Come up with the greatest movie idea possible. That’s the business plan. Important ideas.
Go make something beautiful and important, nourish people, and the system will align around you.
Lotsa articles demystifying this at this point. You’re not crazy. You don’t need to love Geese. The internet manufactured clip cuts and sound bites and pull quotes and hot takes and whatever blah blah blah to convince you that Geese was a phenomenon…so much so that eventually it manifest itself as such. That company Chaotic Good. And many more. This isn’t new, it’s been happening forever. We used to do it with Soundcloud and music blogs, it’s just regular marketing. People are more influenceable now though. Back in the day you needed to deliver something that would work in the manipulative marketing, but now you can convince people that if it doesn’t work for them, it’s their own mistake / problem. They will adapt to a personality who loves Geese, rather than admit they don’t get it. Back in the day, we could place anything at #1 HypeM that we wanted, but place something that sucks at our own peril. We only put records into those systems that we knew would satiate the audience. We had these things called shotguns that would time play count boosts to generate spikes, knowing the system reacted to peaks more than sustained numbers…we’d then time the radio and mainstream press pitches to when we’d pop on the charts…and eventually we’d be everywhere. The record would only stick around though if people liked it. We used the system to get everyone to hear the record, to give it a chance to ‘react.’ But if it didn’t react, it went away. Now, these companies like Chaotic Good take away the need for anything to react. They generate the react, whether it happens organically or even in reality period, or not. Their whole impetus is generating the reactions. They don’t even do the seeding I talked about. There’s no play count boosts, no press alliances, no need for radio, nothing. They reverse engineer the markings of a successful campaign, and you don’t even go backwards to see if anything’s beneath it. Look back a few months at the Nasty Gal article I wrote. Same thing. They don’t even generate spikes. They generate descriptions of a state of reality whereby a spike had happened already, and you just assume it did, and act accordingly, ie you buy something.
I found out this week that “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt” is woke now.
Dear Reading Cinemas + Angelika…please do not sell UES’ only remaining movie theater.
— Sean Glass @sdotglass
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EVENTS
April 23: Magazine Non Grata & Reunion: The Dumb Phone [RSVP]
RESOURCES
Kinema Filmmaker Toolkit [Kinema]
THE NEWS
The important stuff on the important stuff. TL;DR + links if you want more.
| INDUSTRY |
The WGA’s Tentative Deal Gets Writers a Big Boost with Healthcare — and Sets the Tone for the Other Guilds [IndieWire]
Is giving away free tickets to indie films the answer to building cinema audiences? [Screen Daily]
Jonathan Majors Fell Through A Window On Daily Wire Action Flick, Leading Crew To Walk Off Set; Producers Say They “Don’t Negotiate With Communists” [Deadline] Great writing.
Khaleesi ✨@TheDejaKing@DEADLINE Since they were clearly off an edible while writing this — long story short, Jonathan Majors got hurt while filming on the set of his new movie and that was the last straw for the crew who were already concerned about safety. He didn’t do anything wrong & they’re figuring it out12:22 AM · Apr 4, 2026 · 23.7K Views9 Replies · 35 Reposts · 452 Likes
| FESTIVALS + AWARDS |
Cannes: Ira Sachs, Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda Lead Art House-Heavy Lineup [THR]
Cannes’ Frontières Platform Unveils Lineup, Featuring an Indonesian Hot Property Action Thriller and a Monster Penis Creature Feature [Variety]
“The trend is audience-friendly auteur films,” says Thierry Fremaux of this year’s Cannes official selection [Screen Daily]
Iris Knobloch, Thierry Fremaux on Cannes lineup, politics and returning auteurs [Screen Daily]
Juho Kuosmanen, Magnus Von Horn & Carine Tardieu Projects Set For Cannes Investors Circle [Deadline]
Sundance Film Festival: CDMX 2026 by Cinépolis Unveils Official Program for Its Third Edition [Sundance Institute]
| ANNOUNCEMENTS |
Noah Hawley to Direct Horror Remake Terrified for Warner Bros. [THR] Love Hawley, this one is more style over the topic, so I would prefer him to just make his own version of this without needing to call it a remake, but either way, I love Terrified and Rugna. Listen back to our pod a few years ago.
Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn Adds Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson & Tom Waits To Voice Cast [Deadline] Brad Bird is back. Cool.
Kevin Bacon Set For Hulu Drama Pilot ‘Southern Bastards’ From Director/EP Reinaldo Marcus Green [Deadline] Actually pretty cool. I love this comic. I think Kevin Bacon can do this.
Cameron Diaz Developing Troop Beverly Hills Sequel Directed by Clea DuVall [Variety] Kinda dig this too.
| MISC. |
Aubrey Plaza and Chris Abbott Are Having a Baby [The Cut] No comment.
Christopher Abbott Has Been Hollywood’s Best-Kept Secret for Over a Decade [IndieWire] Hilarious timing.
The Japanese ‘first lady of vengeance’ who inspired Kill Bill [Telegraph]
Radiohead Announce Kid A Mnesia Touring Installation [Pitchfork]
Hideo Kojima and Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Satellites II’ to Touch Down in New York [Hypebeast]
Each team’s best promotional giveaway in 2026 [MLB] MLB has become incredible at, I mean, really everything. It started with the @mlb instagram account, I don't know who ran it, but it was like 5, 6, 7 years ago. They were so fun and smart. It was the best social media manager I ever experienced. At a time when MLB otherwise had no idea what it was doing, and commissioner Manfred was constantly stepping on himself. The MLB social media manager was my favorite thing on the internet. Whatever's happened since, I don't think Manfred got smarter, I think he just surrounded himself with smarter people and listened, and whatever that result is...is awesome. Baseball is so much fun, and so successful. Movies should take note. Here's a fun list of marketing stuff they're doing that is really working, and movies, like with our popcorn bucket promos, should take note and ideas.
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATIONS
This is cool.
WHAT TO WATCH
Lower East Side Film Festival Passes On Sale Now [LES FF]
New Directors / New Films [MoMA + FLC] 🍿🍿🍿 Not listing all the films below, but go check them out.
The Grandmaster: Tony Leung, opening April 29 [FLC]
| NEW RELEASES |
Exit 8 [Angelika]
Hamlet [Angelika]
Fantasy Life [Angelika + Nitehawk]
The Christophers [IFC]
Steal This Story, Please! with special guests in person [IFC]
Bunnylovr [Quad]
Acting with special guests in person [Quad]
| ON FILM |
The Informant! in 35mm [Paris]
Michael Clayton in 35mm [Paris]
Caché in 35mm [Paris] 🍿
Burn After Reading in 35mm [Paris]
The Matrix in 35mm [Metrograph]
The Holy Mountain in 35mm [Metrograph]
Alyonka in 35mm [Metrograph]
The Good, The Bad, The Weird in 35mm [Metrograph] 🍿
The Red Balloon + White Mane in 35mm [MoMI]
Trouble Every Day in 35mm [MoMI] 🍿
Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 35mm [MoMI]
| REP CINEMA |
Travis co-hosted by Jean Tsien [Doc NYC]
Revolutionary Road [Paris] 🍿
Taxi Driver [Paris]
The Handmaiden [Paris]
Phantom Thread [Paris] 🍿
Chinatown [Paris] 🍿
Blue Velvet, 4K restoration [IFC] 🍿
Black Girl [Metrograph]
Ken Jacobs’s Lower East Side: A Tribute [Metrograph] 🍿
Dekalog: Full series [Metrograph]
The Seven-Year Itch [MoMI]
How to Marry a Millionaire [MoMI]
Don’t Bother to Knock [MoMI]
| COMING SOON |
| STREAMING |
Dreams [VOD]
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert [VOD]
Heads or Tails [VOD]
My Father’s Shadow [MUBI]
The Phoenician Scheme [Prime]
The President’s Cake [VOD]
Sirāt [Hulu]
| BONUS FEATURES |
Hilarious plot twist.
Funny last month they had the whole scandal about the embarrassing influencer being rude to Julia Fox as the red carpet host, and now Julia Fox does it herself infinitely warmer and better.
The state of the Alamo Drafthouse.
For a certain type of person this is a big deal.
