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Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film A-PDF Split DEMO : Purchase from www.A-PDF.com to remove the watermark Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film VOLUME 2 CRITICISM–IDEOLOGY Barry Keith Grant EDITOR IN CHIEF CRITICISM The term ‘‘critic’’ is often applied very loosely, signifying moments, how spectacular the battles, chases, and explo- little more than ‘‘a person who writes about the arts.’’ It sions, how sexy the comedy. There have been (and still can be defined more precisely by distinguishing it from are) responsible and intelligent reviewer-critics, such as related terms with which it is often fused (and confused): James Agee, Manny Farber, Robert Warshow, Jonathan reviewer, scholar, theorist. The distinction can never be Rosenbaum, and J. Hoberman, but they are rare. complete, as the critic exists in overlapping relationships To be fair, a major liability is the requirement of with all three, but it is nonetheless important that it be speed: how do you write seriously about a film you have made. seen only once, with half a dozen more to review and a two- or three-day deadline to meet? One may wonder, WHAT IS A CRITIC? innocently, how these reviewers even recall the plot or the Reviewers are journalists writing columns on the latest cast in such detail, but the answer to that is simple: the releases in daily or weekly papers. They criticize films, distributors supply handouts for press screenings, con- and often call themselves critics, but for the most part the taining full plot synopses and a full cast list. In theory, it criticism they practice is severely limited in its aims and should be possible to write about a film without even ambitions. They write their reviews to a deadline after (in having seen it, and one wonders how many reviewers most cases) only one viewing, and their job is primarily avail themselves of such an option, given the number of to entertain (their livelihood depends on it), which deter- tedious, stupid movies they are obliged to write some- mines the quality and style of their writing. Some (a thing about every week. What one might call today’s minority) have a genuine interest in the quality of the standard product (the junk food of cinema) can be of films they review; most are concerned with recommend- only negative interest to the critic, who is concerned with ing them (or not) to a readership assumed to be primarily questions of value. The scholar, who must catalogue interested in being entertained. In other words, reviewers everything, takes a different sort of interest in such fare, are an integral (and necessarily uncritical ) part of our and the theorist will theorize from it about the state of ‘‘fast-food culture’’—a culture of the instantly disposable, cinema and the state of our culture. Both will be useful to in which movies are swallowed like hamburgers, forgot- the critic, who may in various ways depend on them. ten by the next day; a culture that depends for its very Reviewers are tied to the present. When, occasion- continuance on discouraging serious thought; a culture of ally, they are permitted to step outside their socially the newest, the latest, in which we have to be ‘‘with it,’’ prescribed role and write a column on films they know and in which ‘‘trendy’’ has actually become a positive intimately, they become critics, though not necessarily descriptive adjective. Many reviewers like to present good ones, bad habits being hard to break. (Pauline Kael themselves as superior to all this (if you write for a is a case in point, with her hit-or-miss insights.) This is newspaper you should be an ‘‘educated’’ person), while not of course to imply that critics are tied exclusively to carefully titillating us: how disgusting are the gross-out the distant past; indeed, it is essential that they retain a 1 Criticism ANDREW BRITTON b. 1952, d. 1994 Although his period of creativity (he was the most creative Mandingo, Now, Voyager, and Meet Me in St. Louis, of critics) covered only fifteen years, Andrew Britton was a informed by sexual and racial politics, psychoanalytic critic in the fullest sense. He had the kind of intellect that theory, and the vast treasury of literature at his command, can encompass and assimilate the most diverse sources, deserve classical status as critical models. His book-length sifting, making connections, drawing on whatever he study of Katharine Hepburn deserves far wider recognition needed and transforming it into his own. Perennial and circulation than it has received so far: it is not only the reference points were Marxism (but especially Trotsky), most intelligent study of a star’s complex persona and Freud, and F. R. Leavis, seemingly incompatible but career, it also covers all the major issues of studio always held in balance. A critic interested in value and in production, genre, the star system, cinematic conventions, standards of achievement will achieve greatness only if he thematic patterns, and the interaction of all of these commands a perspective ranging intellectually and aspects. culturally far beyond his actual field of work. Britton’s His work has not been popular within academia perspective encompassed (beyond film) literature and because it attacked, often with devastating effect, many of music, of which he had an impressively wide range of the positions academia has so recklessly and uncritically intimate knowledge, as well as cultural and political embraced: first semiotics, and subsequently the account of theory. classical Hollywood as conceived by the critic David His work was firmly and pervasively grounded in Bordwell. These attacks have never been answered but sociopolitical thinking, including radical feminism, racial rather merely ignored, the implication being that they are issues, and the gay rights movement. But his critical unanswerable. Today, when many academics are judgments were never merely political; the politics were beginning to challenge the supremacy of theory over integrated with an intelligent aesthetic awareness, never critical discourse, Britton’s work should come into its own. confusing political statement with the focused concrete His death from AIDS in 1994 was a major loss to film realization essential to any authentic work of art. His criticism. intellectual grasp enabled him to assimilate with ease all the phases and vicissitudes of critical theory. He took the FURTHER READING onset of semiotics in stride, assimilating it without the Britton, Andrew. ‘‘Blissing Out: The Politics of Reaganite Entertainment.’’ Movie, nos. 31/32 (Winter 1986): 1–42. least difficulty, immediately perceiving its loopholes and ———. Katharine Hepburn: Star as Feminist. London: Studio points of weakness, using what he needed and attacking Vista, 1995. the rest mercilessly, as in his essay on ‘‘The Ideology of ———. ‘‘Meet Me in St. Louis: Smith, or the Ambiguities.’’ Screen.’’ CineAction, no. 35 (1994): 29–40. His central commitment, within a very wide range of ———. ‘‘A New Servitude: Bette Davis, Now, Voyager, and sympathies that encompassed film history and world the Radicalism of the Women’s Film.’’ CineAction, nos. cinema, was to the achievements of classical Hollywood. 26/27 (1992): 32–59. His meticulously detailed readings of films, such as Robin Wood close contact with what is happening in cinema today, at critic and scholar or critic and theorist is more compli- every level of achievement. But one needs to ‘‘live’’ with a cated. Indeed, the critic may be said to be parasitic on film for some time, and with repeated viewings, in order both, needing the scholar’s scholarship and the theorist’s to write responsibly about it—if, that is, it is a film of real theories as frequent and indispensable reference points. importance and lasting value. (It is also true that the scholar and theorist are prone to The difference between critic and reviewer is, then, dabble in criticism, sometimes with disastrous results.) relatively clear-cut and primarily a matter of quality, But the critic has not the time to be a scholar, beyond seriousness, and commitment. The distinction between a certain point: the massive research (often into 2 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM Criticism unrewarding and undistinguished material) necessary to tied to some specific theory of literature or art. The critic scholarship would soon become a distraction from the must above all be open to new experiences and new intensive examination of the works the critic finds of perceptions, and critical standards were not and could particular significance. And woe to the critic who not be some cut-and-dried set of rules that one applied to becomes too much a theorist: he or she will very soon all manifestations of genius. The critic must be free and be in danger of neglecting the specificity and particularity flexible, the standards arising naturally out of constant of detail in individual films to make them fit the theory, comparison, setting this work beside that. If an ultimate misled by its partial or tangential relevance. Critics value exists, to which appeal can be made, it is also should be familiar with the available theories, should be indefinable beyond a certain point: ‘‘life,’’ the quality of able to refer to any that have not been disproved (for life, intelligence about life, about human society, human theories notoriously come and go) whenever such theo- intercourse. A value judgment cannot, by its very nature, ries are relevant to their work, but should never allow be proved scientifically. Hence Leavis’s famous definition themselves to become committed to any one. A critic of the ideal critical debate, an ongoing process with no would do well always to keep in mind Jean Renoir’s final answer: ‘‘This is so, isn’t it?’’ ‘‘Yes, but . .’’ It is this remarks on theories: very strength of Leavis’s discourse that has resulted, today, in his neglect, even within academia.
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