Warning: This article contains mild spoilers for the movie Sinners.
If you have been anywhere on the internet in the past few weeks, I’m sure you have heard Timothee Chalamet’s comment about how art forms such as ballet and opera are dying industries that need to be kept alive even though “no one cares about [them] anymore.” This statement received a lot of immediate backlash, and rightfully so, particularly after the release of a video from the New York Public Library of Chalamet himself performing in a ballet production of Romeo and Juliet at just six years old. It is evident from his immediate reaction after making the comment that he knew it was misplaced and didn’t come out the way he wanted, but the precedent is still the same. Our society places certain artists above others to create competition in a field that is inherently focused on collaboration, which causes Oscar-nominated actors to think it is their place to put down other artists whom they view as less successful.
On the topic of the Oscars, the record-breaking 16-time nominated film for this Oscar season, Sinners, beautifully puts into context how no one piece of art exists in isolation. During the infamous Juke Joint scene, spirits from both past and present are seen dancing and performing together, despite all being from wildly different time periods. From tribal dancers to DJs, and even a ballerina, these spirits and the art they portray all exist because of one another. Trying to alienate certain art forms is futile because all art is influenced by that of the past. Especially now, with the rise of AI taking over illustration, music, and even movies, we should be focusing on human-created art in all forms. To pit artists against each other when there is one force threatening all of them is the worst thing we could be doing.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether it is a blockbuster movie, a local art gallery, an opera performance, a short film, a band, a play, or anything else. While money and resources gained through viewership and popularity are necessary to keep most of these commercial industries alive, they are not necessary for the art itself to stay alive. Art has persisted for thousands of years (in fact, ballet originated 500 years ago, the first play was 2,600 years ago, and the first recorded drawings date back to 75,000 years ago). Just because society (particularly Western society) tends to favor certain artists over others, it doesn’t mean that any one of them should be able to look down on another and view their field as inferior. In fact, this whole situation should come as a wake-up call for us to start engaging more with more versatile forms of art. They aren’t going anywhere, so we might as well embrace them.
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