Walmsley-Evans Film Criticism as a Cultural Institution

Crisis and Continuity from the 20th to the 21st Century
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-317-28699-8
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 212 Seiten

Reihe: CRESC

At the beginning of the 21st century film criticism was described as in crisis. The decline of print journalism, a series of lay-offs of prominent critics, and the rise of "amateur" reviewing online spurred a conversation about the decline, even death, of film criticism. This discourse flourished in part because film criticism has been little examined in scholarship to date. This book takes a deeper look at film criticism by focusing on its institutional contours. This is achieved through a combination of archival research andinterviews with prominent film critics and stakeholders, including Adrian Martin (LOLA), Stephanie Zacharek (Time), Peter Bart (Variety), and Andrew Sarris (The Village Voice).
Film Criticism as a Cultural Institution first examines the contemporary crisis conversation surrounding film criticism, comparing this to historical precedents. It then provides what today’s crisis conversation does not: an account of film criticism’s institutional formations. Using primarily U.S. and Australian case studies based on interviews, observation and archival research—as well as accounts from other national schools—the book maps contemporary film criticism. Across various sites, such as publications or online spaces, and organisations, such as film critics circles, it elucidates film criticism’s institutional practices, tasks, comportments, and personae.
Looking at the history of conversations about film criticism shows us that "crisis" has always been a leitmotif. While acknowledging the considerable changes and challenges that film criticism faces today, this book situates these within an historical context and proposes an institutional framework that allows us to move beyond crisis discourse. Looking at film criticism in this way allows us to see that the very question of what counts as film criticism is continually contested within an institutional ecology made up of distinctive critical comportments addressed to distinctive audiences.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Walmsley-Evans, Huw

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Film Criticism as a Cultural Institution
Part I: Understanding the Conversation

Crisis and Continuity in Film Criticism

Institutional Approaches to Film Criticism

Part II: Towards an Ecology

Sites of Film Criticism

The Profession of Film Criticism

Film Critics Circles

Film Criticism and the Internet

Epilogue: Film Criticism in the 21st Century

Über Autor(innen)

Huw Walmsley-Evans has taught film, media, communication, and cultural studies for a decade at institutions including the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology. His writing has appeared in Screening the Past, Senses of Cinema, LOLA, and Screen Machine. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Queensland Film Festival. He received his doctorate from the University of Queensland in 2013. This is his first book.