I saw the film, The Informant!, yesterday. Amusing, quirky film. But before the show, I was taken by the fact that almost all the films previewed dealt with looming disasters, end-of-the-world scenarios, and towns (in one case the entire world) populated with vampires.
Films, and art in general, tap into the prevailing zeitgeist. Clearly, the combination of post 9/11 fears with the economic uncertainties of the day can lead to "the world as we know it is ending" plot lines. But during the depression, lots of the films were of the Fred Astaire/Cary Grant variety -- tuxes and tails, no worries, songs like "We're in the money." We seem to be going the other way.
And vampires? The vampire genre was picked up by films almost from the beginning (the silent German classic, Nosferatu, is the best early example), but why are there scads of vampire shows on TV and more at the movies right now? And the vampires aren't always evil like they were in the past. There are the good blood suckers and the bad blood suckers.
I can't figure it out.
