Stumbled across this bit of precognition in Alexandre Astruc's essay "The birth of a new avant-garde: La camera-stylo," which was written in 1948:
It must be understood that up to now the cinema has been nothing more than a show. This is due to the basic fact that all films are projected in an auditorium. But with the development of 16mm and television, the day is not far off when everyone will possess a projector, will go to the local bookstore and hire films written on any subject, of any form, from literary criticism and novels to mathematics, history, and general science. From that moment on, it will no longer be possible to speak of the cinema. There will be several cinemas just as today there are several literatures, for the cinema, like literature, is not so much a particular art as a language which can express any sphere of thought.
How the ascendence of Blockbuster and its ilk must have stung. And what must he make of YouTube and the wonders of the Interweb?
