Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1424528
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 31 OCTOBER 2021 OPINION Raphael Vassallo We've already destroyed most of Xlendi… so why not just destroy the rest? IT'S a funny thing, nostalgia. Just the other day, my attention was drawn to an article published in an American film journal – can't remember the name – which questioned why there seems to be such a widespread public yearn- ing for 'the good old days' right now. And there certainly does, when it comes to cinema. Just consider how many of the movies being made today are simply rehash- es – or even straight-up remakes – of older classics; and, more to the point, how so many of them end up being cheap, inferior imitations of the original (like 'Dukes of Hazzard', for instance. I mean… what were they even thinking?) On one level, it might just indi- cate that today's filmmakers and screenwriters are more comforta- ble working on what they already know, than coming up with orig- inal material of their own. On an- other, however, it may illustrate a familiar truism about the movie industry in general (and, let's face it, pretty much everything else in the known Universe, too). Films cost a lot of money to produce; and today's financiers would much rather risk their investments on something that already has a tried-and-tested record of success, thank you very much... Either way, the outcome re- mains the same. Whether it is artistes who abdicate their crea- tivity for lack of imagination; or risk-averse entrepreneurs, who doggedly stick to the only for- mula they've ever known… the result is an endless recycling of the same old material: the same old comic-book franchises, the same old 1970s TV series reviv- als, the same old dependence on the same old genres and tropes… in a nutshell, 'same old, same old'. But… well, here's that 'fun- ny thing about nostalgia' that I mentioned earlier. According to this article, this recent trend only serves to deprive today's movie-goers of contemporary films, made by their own gener- ation, which reflect the realities and concerns of their own every- day lives. In other words: movies which would probably be just as successful (or memorable) today, as those old classics were in their own era… and for precisely the same reason, too. Because – to use the much more expressive Maltese idiom – they were "ta' żmienhom"… What this also means, howev- er, is that nostalgia works in two, diametrically-opposed ways. For the older generations who actu- ally remember the original films – or at least, the zeitgeist of the era – the pull-factor is obvious. It reminds them of the 'good old days': you know, when art- ists actually produced this thing called 'art', every once in a while (instead of just copying anything that might have sold well in the past); and when entrepreneurs also possessed something called an 'entrepreneurial spirit': occa- sionally risking their hard-earned cash on products that were new, different and (potentially) excit- ing… As for the younger generation, however: the ones who cannot possibly feel any genuine emo- tion, for a past they never experi- enced themselves… well, it seems that nostalgia works slightly dif- ferently on them. OK, this part is my own inter- pretation – nothing to do with that article at all (which, by the way, was mostly about the poten- tial economic, and even political, ramifications of this particu- lar trend) – but I, for one, sus- pect that younger audiences are drawn to evocations of the past, simply because they subcon- sciously 'know' that the present has nothing really comparable to offer them. And like everything else, they are caught up in the same addic- tion to recycled material… always needing another dose of artificial, fabricated 'nostalgia', to satisfy a subconscious craving for 'some- thing' that they feel to be missing from their own lives. Anyway, I could go on – it was, after all, an interesting article – but if I do, I would probably lose sight of my original reason for even bringing it up. So here goes: if you ignore the fact that I've so far only been talk- ing about recent trends in mov- ie-making… well, it could just as easily have been about anything else. Like, for instance: why the state of Malta's environment has deteriorated so alarmingly, and irreparably, over the past 10 or so years. Or why the Planning Authority has just approved an application to destroy the last remaining unspoilt part of Xlen- di (logically enough, after having already destroyed pretty much all the rest of it anyway…). Ok, the analogy itself might break down at various points; but if you replace 'movies' with 'buildings'; 'screenwriters/direc- tors' with 'architects/urban plan- ners'; and 'producers' with 'de- velopers'… and, well, you'll have part of the answer already. It would, of course, be a little over-generous to describe today's urban development as a 'cheap, inferior imitation' of past con- struction efforts. Certainly, they do not 'imitate' their predeces- sors in anything that really mat- ters: like elegance; design; health and safety standards (seriously, though: Mnajdra is still standing after 5,000 years; today's buildings have a tendency to collapse be- fore they are even competed; etc, etc.…) and, least of all, respect for their surroundings, and the integ- rity of the entire townscape. Other than that, however, we are still looking at the endless re- cycling of the same old 'tried-and- tested' development formula – apartment blocks, supermarkets, multi-storey garages, etc. – that not only disfigure the surrounding streetscape; but also radically alter the entire shape and character of the unfortunate localities they were inflicted upon… needless to add, steamrolling over all other considerations in the process. Ironically, however, this same callous disregard for others – coupled with the sight of so much of our past heritage, being literal- ly bull-dozed before our eyes – may also be having a similar 'ar- tificial nostalgia' effect of its own. For once again, it not just old, romantic fogeys like me – who remember, among countless oth- er examples, the Sliema seafront before its post-1980s mutilation – who are wringing our hands in despair. No: a sense of exasperation can also be felt among the younger generation, too; even though – just like they don't remember the original 'Duke of Hazzard' series (ah, what they missed!); or the original 1970s Star Wars franchise (in another galaxy, long before the prequels) – they don't have any real memory of the Xlendi promenade lined with tamarisk trees, either… or when the sandy beach actually extended all the way across the shoreline (instead of ending abruptly in a concrete wall)… or when Xlendi's most conspicuous building was actu- ally the 'Moby Dick Bar and Res- taurant' (now dwarfed by ghastly concrete leviathans, sprouting up from all sides)…. But while they may remember no such thing, themselves… they can nonetheless surely appreciate that 'the past' could only con- ceivably have been 'better', than a present they all intuitively know – and feel; and can see with their own two eyes – to be manifestly 'worse', at all levels. And this, paradoxically, creates a fabricated nostalgia of its own. It