09 février 2010

Anti-Curriculum Vitae

A film critic is NOT :
  1. a "common people", an average viewer, a random audience member (see The root of anti-intellectualism)
  2. a fanboy, a fetishist, a partisan, a demagogue, a populist, a follower (see Prejudice)
  3. a peer, a friend, a kissass (see Complacency)
  4. an autobiographer (see Egocentrism)
  5. a writer, a novelist, an artist (see Mannerism)
  6. a "journalist", a newscaster, a pundit (see The Daily Show)
  7. a tastemaker, a trendsetter, a role model, a signpost (see trade publications)
  8. a publicist, a marketer, a travelling salesman, a salaryman (direct or indirect) of the movie industry (see Conflict of interests)
  9. a censor, a cultural arbitrer, a political arbitrer, a moral arbitrer (see Branding Abu Dhabi)
  10. a speculator, a gambler, a prophet (see festival post-mortem coverages)
  11. a dictator, God almighty (see ivory tower)
... sometimes it's important to keep this in mind to stay grounded, humble and honest with this discipline.

4 commentaires:

HarryTuttle a dit…

Instead of trying to improve their critical thinking skills and become insightful and respected, bad critics will strive to modify the universal definition of "criticism" to make it fit their own limitations and self-centered aspirations...

Adrian Mendizabal a dit…

kudos!

HarryTuttle a dit…

"We live in an era when online critics are often swayed in their opinions by swag, trips, and favors from studio representatives. Yet the goal of a true critic is to honestly examine a film, not attempt to curry favor with a corporation. This panel will examine what it takes to stay honest in a digital world, from disclosure of sponsorships to a constant effort to remain separate from studios."
You Are Not a Publicist Criticism vs. Advertising (SXSW 2011; 8 Nov 2011) 1h05'

HarryTuttle a dit…

"[..] For one thing, critics – more than artists and curators – tend to work alone; while there are professional bodies, it’s mostly a solo pursuit, a lot of which takes place before any conversation with an editor. [..]
Criticism is genetically untidy. [..]
More cynically, Boris Groys once wrote that after judgement has melted away all that is left is commentary: he favours the epithet ‘art commentator’ over ‘critic’, one who protects the modesty of the art with a ‘textual bikini’. [..]
But when Rosenberg and Greenberg are invoked as emblematic of a certain kind of monolithic criticism, which they often are, it’s usually forgotten that the former started out as a poet and survived as a sometime ad man, and that the latter began as a customs official with a background in literature. They were both multi-taskers too. [..]
Whether implying a tidy guild or a critic who is impeccably disinterested, each account constructs a kind of figure that I’m not sure ever existed: one who is undistracted, part of a pure tradition and devoted to a single pursuit. But if criticism has often been characterized by a lack of codification, perhaps it’s better to think of it as a number of related practices with different goals rather than a uniform field of activity. This untidiness could be a virtue."
Call Yourself a Critic? The untidy tradition of criticism (Sam Thorne; Frieze; #145; 2012)