90’s was the decade that marked the end to an era of world cinema. With the death of directors Kubrick, Ray, Kurosawa, Fellini and David Lean, cinema was left nowhere! Renoir, Welles and Hitchcock were already dead and Bergman had retired! Though Godard and Hou contributed significantly, as did Kiarostami, Rohmer, Angelopoulos, Rivette, Mike Leigh, Wong Kar-wai, Almodovar, Kusturica and Pialat, among many others. But the greats of world cinema were gone!
Hollywood suffered equally. The expressionism of ’70s and ’80s was gone. The ’90s started with Goodfellas in 1990 and ended with Bringing Out the Dead in 1999, both by Martin Scorsese- the most consistently passionate and committed of all active American directors. In between, Hollywood witnessed the meteoric rises of Tarantino and P.T. Anderson and the rebirth of Robert Altman. Clint Eastwood was summing up everything in his career into what turned out to be the last of the great westerns- Unforgiven. The Coen brothers were on the rise, with Fargo, Miller’s Crossing and The Big Lebowski under their flag. This decade witnessed the fall of Coppola, George Lucas and most notably, Steven Spielberg- who turned more into a business-headed producer than a director he was once! The decade ended with films like Matrix, American Beauty and Eyes Wide Shut- which showed some hope for the next millennium.
Coming on to the Bollywood of ’90s, I don’t find it even worth discussing. The list of Filmfare award nominees of the decade disgusted me. Readers will understand…
सौरभ राय | Sourav Roy 
Yes i totally agree with the point regarding the decline of Fine cinema in the late ninety’s.
The Main Cause being the Loss of many a masterminds such as Kubrick,Ray,Kurosawa,Bergman etc.
Remaining Big shots such as Spielberg,Lucas and even Cameron have turned their heads to where the money is.
Clint Eastwood although did his last western role in Unforgiven.
Turned himself to Direction and what a fine move it has been.
Christopher Nolan, The Wachowski Brothers are also something worth mentioning Post 90’s. “To Gain something you have to lose something” holds good even in Hollywood.
Regarding the filmfare awards and the ‘n’ number of award shows. Its all about who’s made the most moolah and stars promoting their next movie.
it is unfortunate that Hollywood has fallen into a “super heroes” phase and is spending all their energy making silly super hero movies…
but nothing to worry… we still have Martin scorcese and christopher Nolan 🙂
Bollywood.. I don’t even want to dignify the “industry” by making a comment on that…
I really dont agree with statement that bollywood suffered in 90s or it was a mere non-sense during that period.I agree the art-makers were absent but wat 90’s saw and happen is the reason why we have the same “industry” thriving.Common lets face the fact, If an Indian family wants to have a movie outing will it go to watch any of Kiarostami, Rohmer, Angelopoulos, Rivette, Mike Leigh, Wong Kar-wai, Almodovar, Kusturica and Pialat or Yash Chopra,SLB, Vidhu Chopra, Mahesh Bhatt.Agree or not these movies of 90’s were made from view of enter tainment, and yes they did their job fairly well!Infact i feel they entertained the audience really well!Dont know why we only degrade our own movies without appreciating the fact that they are serving their purpose of keeping us aloof from reality which bugs ours life anyways..Reason why people still pay rs.250 and still watch a 3IDIOTS/Rock on in a multiplex is just for entertainment!