Post by lune7000 on Sept 12, 2021 13:42:49 GMT
Not my field, but has class something to do with it? I believe most classic crime mysteries were in middle-class settings. Before WWII the mass cinema-going public were working-class and enjoyed a peek into middle-class lives, both envying them and enjoying a frisson at watching posh people in deep trouble.
Difficult to either envy or sympathize with Agatha Christie characters these days. They all seem like fancy-dress puppets, not real people.
Knives Out (2019) dir: Rian Johnson was a deliberate attempt to revive the genre, and massively hyped as such with slogans like 'When did you last have fun at the movies?'. I would take one of the 1930s originals every time (not that I like them much either).
My gut tells me the answer somehow lies in how our minds have been shaped by technology. The decline in mystery movies may be related to the decline in reading books, doing challenging puzzles, going to the library, etc. Older classic films seem "quieter" than today's films.