Hollywood Banker (2014)

Hollywood Banker: Directed by Rozemyn Afman. With Frans J. Afman, Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis, Yoram Globus. How Frans Afman, a banker from the Netherlands, developed a new system for film financing, revolutionized independent filmmaking in Hollywood, but could not prevent it all from crashing down, when ambition of others turned into greed.

“This doesnu0026#39;t seem like it would be very interesting. But from the point of view of trying to understand how things really work (as opposed to the public image) I found it fascinating. Not just the basic storyline of how the movies were financed, but seeing the producers (most of whom clearly have no place in front of a camera, only behind one!), and seeing some details of the big bank scandal which I was vaguely aware of but never knew anything about.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut the biggest insight was seeing why (if you ever noticed this) movies seemed to change in such a way from the 80s to the 2000s. Thereu0026#39;s not just the rise of sequels and prequels, everyone knows that; but the fact that independents no longer make *big* movies, just these tiny (usually boring, preachy, and predictable as hell) film festival movies, the type of movie you think of as u0026quot;independentu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the 80s, Terminator, Cliffhanger, Platoon, Dance with Wolves, Superman were independent movies! But that changed. This documentary explains what that change was, and itu0026#39;s not what you expect. Very much an example of how sometimes contingency, as opposed to u0026quot;deep structural forcesu0026quot;, rules history.”