Self-congratulation and Very Bad News

Nice to see one's theories, formed in the vacuum of one's head [um - is that the image I wish to convey? - ed.], repeated in the World at Large. In this case, my notion about the evolution of "Oscar films" seems also to be held by Dave Kehr:

Back in the 1980s, the Weinsteins were among the first distributors to recognize and exploit the shortage of middle-brow movies created by the studios’ decision to concentrate on mass-release popcorn pictures at the expense of adult dramas. By the mid-’90s, Miramax had grown into the contemporary equivalent of the Samuel Goldwyn Studio, turning out the prestige pictures — with Anthony Minghella standing in for William Wyler — that the majors were no longer interested in producing.

That was what I was referring to.

The more serious point of the post is the end of Wellspring as an independent film distributor. The Weinsteins have bought it and gutted it and appear to be hanging it on a wall. This is a very grim development - especially since they're keeping Wellspring's film library (as far as I can tell). Given the Weinstein's track record, that might be the last we see of any of those films anytime soon. That's very depressing.