Free FilmFour
Posted on July 23, 2006 - Filed Under Film |
Or “Film4″, as the new, watered-down one is called. We used to subscribe to the channel before it became free, and so I’ve been watching it for years. It’s the channel on which I first saw such excellent films as Battle Royale, Waking Life, Donnie Darko, The Seventh Seal and The Cat Returns, and hence I bear it no inconsiderable affection. However, this latest “no charge” development has upset me, and not (soley) because the great unwashed now have the same access as me to high brow films.
The other reason I’m annoyed is that the channel has been comprimised by this development. Not only has it abondoned its ‘weekly’ channel, it now appears to show commercials during films. This is disgraceful. When I’m watching a film, be it a Bergman or one in which Japanese school kids are gruesomely killing each other, I do not want it to be interupted by ads every 25 minutes, no matter what they’re advertising.
A final reason I’m upset is that I expect a slight dumbing down of content henceforth. If the channel is now aiming to attract more viewers, then I expect it will show more mainstream films and less art house type ones. While I would estimate that before at least 30% of the movies shown were in foreign languages, I bet that only a fraction will be subtitled affairs from now on.
All in all, a very bad show on the part of the FilmFour people.
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3 Responses to “Free FilmFour”
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Good to see you back Cian, by the way there’s a bunch of new templates installed if you ever feel like changing the look.
As for free Film Four…how bad?!
I already had a digital package so that I could watch BBC3/4 and More4 but I caved and got the one with Film4. The verdict?
Forget Film4, Turner Classic Movies is where it’s at. Last week alone they showed The African Queen, Mildred Pierce, tons of Marx Brothers, Double Indemnity and many more classics.
I’m totally addicted.
I think FilmFour’s main appeal lied in its showing of great less well-known films. TCM is scared of showing anything violent too. Not that all violent films are good, but you’ll never see Battle Royale on TCM.