[E]n numerosos países aflora la tendencia a verlo todo, o casi, desde el punto de vista del entretenimiento. Lo que pueda entretener es bienvenido o bienquisto; lo que no, poco atractivo, mal visto y hasta sospechoso. Y esto ocurre no sólo en el mundo de “los espectáculos”—que, al fin y al cabo, suelen organizarse para mayor y mejor entretenimiento del público—, sino asimismo en casi todas las actividades, incluyendo las antaño juzgadas más graves, como la educación, la religión y la política.

We shouldn’t be afraid of difficult films, we shouldn’t be afraid not to be entertained. The viewer pays a high price for a film. And not in money. Viewers spend their time, a piece of their lives—an hour and a half to two hours. A bad film, an aggressive film, takes several centuries of life from humanity.

My wife and I by coach to the Opera and there saw Romeo and Julett, the first time it was ever acted. But it is the play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do; and I am resolved to go no more to see the first time of acting, for they were all of them out more or less.