The Fanatic Geek

The cartoon above is called " The Fanatic Geek" . It was drawn by  Patrick Chapatte in 2008 and was published in the International Herald Tribune. This cartoon deals with the issue of technological progress which can interfere with the movie business.

The first thing we spot in the cartoon is the caricature of a fan getting an autograph from a movie director or an actor ( also caricatures). Then we see the speech bubble with the quote :" I love your movies. I've pirated them all! ". We can also see a Cannes logo in the top left corner with underneath it written "CANNES". On the right we can see a police officer retaining fans from going on the red carpet on which the star is, with his partner and one fan. Also on the left we can see two stars saying goodbye before entering the inside of the festival and finally we can see some journalists on the center left taking pictures of the stars.

With this cartoon the cartoonist wants to criticize the fact that because of modern technology everyone pirates movies and watches them for free instead of going to the movies. The fact that people don't go to the movies anymore has an impact on the movie business ,which is very negative. The cartoonist wants in this fun way to make people become aware of the fact that what they do ( which is illegal) is also killing the movie business.

The cartoon is very well designed and carefully thought-out but I think it's not convincing because people just don't care anymore, and people don't want to pay 10€ to go see a movie ( let's not include snacks & beverages) when they can just watch at home for free and they can even pause and start the movie whenever they want. But it's not the cartoonist's fault that the cartoon is not touching enough it's just that people nowadays have a different way of thinking than they had in the 20th century. Bottom line I don't even approve the message because the movie business is never going to stop and even if the fact that people pirate their movies , the movie business is as good as always and stars are still as rich as always so money is not the problem. With that said I still think that a good movie should be seen at the movies not only for the visual and audio quality but also for the good old times.