The Celebrity Truth

Oscar-nominee George Clooney has taken a swipe at the film industry, saying that computer-generated imagery has diluted the film pool and offers no substitute for a good story, and that it is now left to television studios to produce pioneering drama.

The Hollywood actor – who has been nominated for the best actor Oscar this year for his role in ‘Michael Clayton’ – believes that film studios were producing "masterpieces" at the rate of 10 per year in the 1960s and ’70s, but says that today’s movies lack ground-breaking drive.

"[In] 12 years (between 1964 and 1976), you could find 10 films a year that are masterpieces," the actor told the British magazine Radio Times, pointing to Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Alan J. Pakula and Sidney Lumet as the top directors of that time.

"They don’t make those films any more. You couldn’t come near making those films," he said, adding that computer-generated imagery and visual pyrotechnics were no substitute for well-crafted stories.

Although Clooney has make an effort to be involved in intelligent films – such as his Oscar-winning performance in the thriller ‘Syriana’, about the influence of the oil industry – the 46-year-old actor said it was now up to television studios to produce pioneering drama.

Clooney also revealed that he gave each of his friends a gift of 100 of his favourite DVDs from his 12-year golden period.

They included Cold War classics such as ‘Fail-Safe’, ‘The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’ and ‘Dr Strangelove’, along with ‘Bound For Glory’ – a biographical film about the folk singer Woody Guthrie – and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver’, starring Robert de Niro.

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Photo courtesy of Castle Rock.