By Wheeler Winston Dixon
Translator: Chen Sihang
Proofreading: Issac
Source: Senses of Cinema
We've seen scenes like this before, but in the middle of a movie: a mysterious, incurable plague that suddenly emerges out of nowhere and then wreaks havoc across the globe.
Preceded by Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957), followed by Steven Soderbergh's Infectious Diseases (2011), the former interpreting the Black Death of the fourteenth century, and the latter, where a mysterious virus caused countless painful deaths in a matter of days, society as a whole was unprepared for its arrival, circling in futile circles in an attempt to contain the spread of the disease.
The Seventh Seal
This time, however, there is no barrier between the screen-like spectacle and the audience. This time, the threat is real. Like the repeated epidemics on the screen, we are unprepared in real life.
Infectious Diseases
Perhaps the only thing close to this global reach was the so-called "Spanish" flu of 1918-1920. That outbreak infected 500 million people around the world, killing between 17 million and 100 million people – an event that is still inaccurate to this day – and fundamentally changed the course of society. But in the end, no one learned the lesson, and governments around the world were once again caught off guard.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in late 2019 has spread globally, with a mortality rate of 4.5% per 1,000 infected people as of March 25, 2020. Moreover, this virus has not yet fully gained a foothold.
There is no vaccine, no cure, and the only thing that can be done is isolate the patient from the rest of society, as was done during the Black Death. Next, patients with COVID-19 must fight on their own, and older adults are particularly susceptible to serious illness and death. It's a perfect horror movie scene, but unfortunately it's a nightmare we can't wake up to.
Of course, in times like these, people are forced to adapt to the new normal, and they don't know when the pandemic will end. As I write this in late March 2020, I hope the situation will ease somewhat by the end of August.
But the best news now is that COVID-19 will continue to exist, a perennial seasonal disease that will continue to play a deadly killer until a vaccine is found.
So, how do we deal with it? We wanted to go to the movies, but the movie theaters were closed, and they had good reasons. In fact, public places around the world have been closed (at least with significantly reduced opening hours), and in most cases, the number of permitted gatherings is less than 10, and the most severe regimes have enforced house segregated.
Shops, concert halls, churches, weddings, funerals, all public gatherings – everything will be history. Today, just looking at the pictures of people walking the streets of New York City, a nostalgia rises in our hearts.
Everything moved online. We've all seen videos of the hardest-hit countries (Italy, China and Spain) singing to each other on their balconies, all to maintain "social distancing" – the four words that are buzzwords of the new era.
Television and film production around the world has stopped, and the release date of almost all theatrical films has been postponed to the moment when theaters can reopen – but what time is that?
Any attempt to plan and manage the COVID-19 virus timeline is futile, and it is the virus that creates the schedule, not us. All we can do is wash our hands, keep our distance from others, and stay home until the crisis is over – praying that it will pass in one way or another.
So, with theaters closed, how do we push mainstream movies to the paying public?
Universal Pictures decided to release four of their current films in the form of streaming videos, including Otem De Wilder's Emma, Craig Dhobe's The Hunt, and Ray Werner's The Invisible Man.
Emma (2020)
The films all cost $20 online, but the experiment was a fiasco: people used to pay $2.99 or $3.99 for a recent film, and all of the above were relatively low-budget projects that could recoup production costs without being released in theaters.
If we want to see those blockbusters, those blockbusters that traditionally have big premieres in theaters on weekends, then we have to wait. But will audiences return to theaters? Recently, theater owners have been discussing this issue, and in order to get the audience back to the theater, they may let the audience enter for free until they once again develop the "habit" of watching movies.
The Hunt (2020)
The world of online imaging has become so prosperous that streaming giants have voluntarily reduced image quality from high definition to standard, cleaning up additional bandwidth for a large number of new online customers.
Of course, Netflix has made leaps and bounds, as have Hulu, Amazon Prime, and other streaming video sources. Moreover, with the closure of traditional brick-and-mortar stores, people can only order goods and choose services online.
Society has become an isolated community where people live entirely through Zoom, Facebook, and FaceTime. It's all because face-to-face contact has now become so dangerous.
In New York, the usually bustling streets are now empty. This is true of Los Angeles, London, Brisbane, Wellington, and all of the world's largest cities (and even small towns).
If I have to say it, COVID-19 has had a strange benefit — individual artists are starting to make a full return to DIY film and video production, uploading images created entirely by individuals, or some works from the past, and it seems that we have a hard time recognizing any "past" today.
At the same time, the number of classic movies illegally uploaded to the web has also increased significantly. As long as you can find the right channel, the global movies of the entire twentieth century are online and free.
And all of this happened in just a few months. However, our perception of them, and the changes in our thinking, seem irreversible and long-term. Today, late-night talk shows around the world rely on Skype interviews to provide content.
Airlines are shutting down, airports are closing, and there are thousands of empty rooms in hotel chains because no one wants to fly — in fact, no one is free to fly— because almost every country has imposed some sort of ban on travelers in an attempt to contain the virus.
We don't know when this will end. In fact, unless we create an inexpensive, universal treatment, and unless we cure those who are already infected, we don't see the end in the true sense of the word.
Most experts believe that any effective preventive measure will take at least a year or more to emerge – although trials of vaccines have already begun. But at the same time, we must consider how our obsession with global disruption has led to our complacency. There are some things that can only happen in movies, and we can't afford to live with them in reality.
"A global deadly epidemic" – a theme that has many variations in the film, always seems to be popular with audiences who want the risks and thrills of fictional crises, but at the same time want to keep a safe distance from them because they think it will never happen to them.
When Herbert George Wells wrote the screenplay for William Cameron Menzies's FirmLy Determined To Happen (1936), he accurately predicted the outbreak of World War II, as well as some things that didn't happen at the time:
A worldwide plague called "roaming disorder" causes people to wander aimlessly and precariously like zombies, infecting other people everywhere they go, and enforcing executions — usually by shooting — is the only way to stop them from attacking.
"Determined to Happen"
Whether in Ubardo Lagner and Sidney Salkov's The Last Man on Earth (1964), or in Boris Sagar's The Last Man (1971) and Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend (2007), the plague caused by the virus destroyed civilization in a similar way, leaving only a few survivors to fight the infected walking dead.
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Terrance Fisher's Earth Destroyed in a Scream (1964) assumes a "gas attack" that kills everyone but a few survivors.
People are forced to stay in controlled ventilation areas or in oxygen tents, which is how to keep them alive.
In Robert Wise's The Great Apocalypse on Earth (1971), scientists rushed to fight an airborne virus from space that could kill all life it touched in seconds.
The Great Apocalypse on Earth (1971)
In John Sturges' Top Secret Third Station (1965), a deadly virus secretly developed at the Biological weapons Laboratory in the American desert is stolen by a fanatic who is bent on destroying the world.
In Kim Sung-so's recent South Korean film Flu (2013), the H5-N1 flu virus outbreak killed all those infected in 36 hours, and the list continues to grow.
Flu
But perhaps the most effective comparison would be Roger Koeman's 1964 Red Death, based on several stories by Edgar Allan Poe, whose cinematographer was the talented Nicholas Roiger (who later became director).
The film clearly bears similarities to The Seventh Seal, but it also has some unique advantages. The work tells the story of the Satanic prince Prospero (Vincent Price) who became a debauched ruler in a medieval Italian town. The rest of the world died outside the walls of Prospero's castle because of the Effects of the Red Death.
The Red Death
At the same time, he leads a group of weary nobles to a carnival and performs a series of sadistic games. However, this eventually led to the death of all the party participants, as the Red Death entered the castle and it knocked down first one person and then everyone.
The COVID-19 virus has indeed become a great equalizer of sorts. No one is immune. Moreover, it looks like a tenacious, perennial plant that will eventually join the ranks of those who are routinely ill, and because of this, its appearance is particularly worrying. However, from the day the film was born, from the first time we thought about the "inevitable death" because of the screen, we have been "preparing" for it.
Today, this threat is no longer abstract, it has become a reality. As we move our lives online, when we need access to goods, services, entertainment, and socializing, we increasingly leave the real world behind.
When the fictional images we create on the screen become a reality, we enter a semi-permanent, isolated world. The images we make today can only establish a ghostly connection with the distant past.
When this virus is finally conquered, it will leave an indelible mark on civilization.
What kind of film will we create after the crisis is over? Like 9/11, COVID-19 changed all the rules. What we create in the future will be very different from everything in the past.