Don't be fooled, they are already forgotten. The culprit: People just don't care.
A few months ago, I went to a wedding in Tucson, AZ. The most boring city in the world. I saw Django Unchained there. When I left the theater, two 20-something guys were walking ahead of me. Their conversation was: "That was okay." "Yeah. Who made it?" "A guy named Tarantino" "Has he done anything before?" "I think he directed that other movie, a long time ago, Pulp Fiction, I think." "Oh yeah, I remember, that was okay too." And out they went.
Now, if people don't know who Tarantino is, how do you expect them to know a Capra, a Lubitsch or a Wilder... They have heard of Hitchcock, to be sure, but can they name one movie he's directed?
I think that's how most people see movies. There will always be cinema students (or students of cinema), researchers or cinema lovers like us, but to the rest of the world, cinema is just a way to spend a few hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
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