Scott Sumner: belief

Transcript context

…Do you think there are Hollywood movies, recent ones, that 50 years from now will be viewed as classics and still watched? I’m not sure there will be, actually. Right now, it’s Christmas season. People watch Wizard of Oz again, perhaps. I don’t myself like It’s a Wonderful Life, but I would grant it’s become a classic. Die Hard, which is pretty good, right? That’s become a sort of classic, Christmas classic. Are we producing ones like that? They’re not even the best movies, right? But they’ve lasted. Yes. No, I think that that’s my view: In any art form, there’s like a golden era. There’s multiple, in some cases. If you take the art of painting, there is an enormous number of masterpieces produced between 1600 and, say, 1675. The next 75 years, I don’t think it’s anywhere close to being comparable to that previous 75 years, when Rembrandt, Velázquez, Vermeer, Rubens, all those were so spectacular. I think painting didn’t get a lot of momentum again until the 19th century, when there was new innovations, which opened up new possibilities. Yes, I think that in film, certain styles get played out. Then eventually somebody develops something new. I’m actually surprised by how vibrant the novel is as an art form, because that’s been around for a long time. It’s done fantastically well, yes. Knausgård, Ferrante.…

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