Letterboxd, an essential social network for moviegoers



Along with the ever-increasing proliferation of streaming video services, which offer richer and more varied content than ever before, Letterboxd has seen its popularity explode over the past two years, from 1.7 million members in 2020, to 5 million in 2021.

Canada ranks fourth in the world for Letterboxd user activity, behind the US, UK and Brazil. The number of members in the country has increased by 60% this year, compared to 2021, according to figures provided by the company.

Letterboxd finds particular resonance with Gen Z and Y, who dominate the platformspecifies the Canada Media Fund (CMF) in a document detailing consumer trends.

By betting on a strategy based on a formula of influencers, which can be followed by subscribing to their account, the platform has built its own ecosystem of amateur reviews guided by authenticity.continues the FMC.

Launched in 2011, Letterboxd was born from the desire of two web entrepreneurs from Auckland, the metropolis of New Zealand, to create a Goodreads for cinema. Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow wanted to reproduce the user-friendly environment, open to everyone, which characterizes the famous rating and book review site.

We wanted to craft an experience that brings together a bit of Twitter, a bit of Tumblr, and a dash of IMDb [pour] create a space where people would feel comfortable sharing their experience of the filmssays Matthew Buchanan in the FMC press release.

Freedom in content and in form

There is a small, fairly tight Quebec community on LBsays Maude Trottier, co-editor of the online film magazine Hors champ, and one of the many professional critics in the province to frequently use the platform.

There is an intimacy specific to LB, I don’t know how they managed to achieve that, but it really works. People feel empowered to give their rating in a very free wayshe adds.

The notion of freedom is a constant that comes up regularly in the evaluations of the site, both internally and among its members or media specialists.

In a long paper published last year on the meteoric growth of the company, the New York Times argued that this freedom gives writings posted on Letterboxd a Wild West quality.

What ends up at the top of the site varies drastically: there are obscure memes, personal essays and sprawling spiels filled with pseudo-academic jargonanalyzes the log.

The article notes that one of the most consulted publications (New window) of the story of Letterboxd is a cryptic and terse review of the film Joker : That’s what happened to my homie Eric.

This variety of voices, uninhibited from the hierarchies of expertise, is what gives the site its particular charm, believes Maude Trottier. There is something truly unique about LB; this mixture of intimacy and knowledge, of debates and often witty phrases of appreciationshe says.

Open new horizons

Present in some 200 countries, Letterboxd can be considered one of the most valuable tools for democratization. If a mega-production like Dunes was the most commented film there in 2021, the forum makes it possible to put forward works which usually pass under the radar of Western cinephiles, exposed mainly to Hollywood and European cinema.

What is particularly encouraging is the community’s ability to discover and build gems from the independent industry.said Matthew Buchanan.

Letterboxd co-founder hints at drama here yunia low-budget Indonesian co-production, which earned third place in the category of highest-rated films of the last year on its site.

The rest of this most eclectic podium is made up of yet another Marvel success, Spiderman : without returnand an eccentric Japanese animated feature film, evangelion : 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time.

The intensive networking that takes place on Letterboxd allows even the most seasoned moviegoers, such as Sylvain Lavallée, critic published in various Quebec journals and former lecturer in acting at the University of Montreal, to make substantial discoveries. .

Current affairs films will inevitably stand out, but it also allows us to rub shoulders with cinephiles different from ours.he said.

For example, following a horror fan who brings out hidden gems that can’t be found, another who goes through movie history year after year (no kidding), or who watches all the movies from a particular nation. , etc.

Same story with his critical colleague Mathieu Li-Goyette, editor-in-chief of Panorama-cinéma, who appreciates the possibility of cultivating privileged contacts with big names in the industry, both here and elsewhere.

He cites the example of Quebec director Pascal Plante (Nadia, Butterfly) and fellow screenwriter Éric K. Boulianne (prank), avid letterboxers, as well as prized American independent filmmaker Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project) or the co-writer of pulp FictionRoger Avary.

A social network where Sean Baker recommends me to review Female Prisoner #701: Scorpionfrom Shun’ya Itô, it’s the kind of social network where I like to waste my timehe assures.

Cinephilia 2.0, new era

Letterboxd’s growing popularity has had the effect of competing with the world’s most frequented haunt of moviegoers, IMDb – or Internet Movie Database – a database of movies, television and video games launched in 1990, which is one of the most visited sites on the Internet.

In 2017, IMDb retired its virtual message board, which offered the ability for millions of people to chat anonymously. Over time, the trolls had established their rule there, and artistic discussions had begun to take a back seat. The company ultimately judged that the service was no longer able to provide a positive and helpful experience.

The vacuum created by the demise of the bulletin board from IMDb inevitably reinforced the relevance of Letterboxd.

The community there is much more welcoming, curious, quick to discuss, than on the defunct IMDb forums, which were often very vicious, like certain blogs.believes Sylvain Lavallée.

Letterboxd moves the conversations that we had at the exit of a room to offer them a virtual living room. »

A quote from Sylvain Lavallee

Make your diary public

Beyond the stimulating exchanges between cinephiles, Letterboxd offers its members the possibility of structuring their love of the 7and art.

Basically, it mainly allows you to keep a personal diary of viewings, the interface offering quite a lot of freedom: rate the films or not, make a written review or not, the possibility of drawing up listsexplains Sylvain Lavallée.

For Mathieu Li-Goyette, the platform proved to be an ideal place to archive his impressions on a virtual rather than analog medium.

Like a lot of other colleagues, before LB existed, I kept a little notebook, I wrote down all the films I saw and where I saw them. It was very important, not only to remind me of everything I saw in a year, but also because over time it makes for great memories.

This habit has been completely replaced by LB, where our viewing logs are public. […] And then create lists, reorganize and share our little imaginary cinema museumshe says.

Finally, Letterboxd offers the opportunity to launch unexpected careers, as in the case of Sydney Wegner, a single mother living in a remote town in Texas, who never intended to write professionallyreports the New York Times.

But his texts, which employ a very free and personal form – his criticism of minions (New window) reads like a poetic ode to his daughtersaid the New York Times — have earned her guest appearances on popular film podcasts, hosting theatrical film screenings, and writing paid reviews.

Unless it has a personal aspect, I find criticism very boring. »

A quote from Sydney Wegner

This is in a way a concretization of the famous adage of an emblematic filmmaker of the French New Wave. As François Truffaut said, we both have two professions, ours and that of film critics: Letterboxd is the very embodiment of this idea.concludes Sylvain Lavallée.



Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca

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