Table ronde : critique et internet (2008)

La critique de cinéma et le défi d'internet: de la revue au blog

Roundtable organised at La Cinémathèque Française (2008-07-06) in Paris.
MP3 and Video available at Canal U (FRENCH, 2h)

Guests (only one blogger among representatives of the paper press institution, TV, university and La Cinémathèque) :

• N.T. Binh (Yann Tobin) : critic at Positif, distributor (Les Grands Films Classiques), documentarian
  
• Luc Lagier : critic, ex-chief editor of TV show "Court-Circuit" (Arte), blogger
  
• Frédéric Bas : scholar, writer for Chronic'art and Médiapart
  
• Julien Gester : critic, curator, editor of the website Les Inrockuptibles
  
• Joachim Lepastier : blogger (365 jours ouvrables)
• Alexandre Tylski : scholar, editor of revue Cadrage

My notes from the collective debate :


CRISIS OF PAPER PRESS

Drop of interest by paper readers, and drop of sales, shrinking of the space allocated to cinema in newspapers... the cinema discourse online has built up and solidified in the last 10 years, from the online forums, to the websites of paper publications, to the blogs.

Blog : Impressions intuitive, subjective, intimate and fetishistic, like a collector album of cinema memories. Cross-references, confrontations, extrapolations... dialogue of cinema with architecture, urbanism, songs, football...
Multimedia content, using sound and image, a form that is impossible on paper.

There is the death of something (institutional criticism) and the birth of something else (multimedia criticism), which is very chaotic. Revolution of the "function critic". To break the stream of weekly professional criticism.
Internet is "the place of diffraction of the critical speech" against the professionalism of the formatted critic profession.


MULTIMEDIA CRITICISM

Freedom of the internet opposed to constraint of TV production. Notably the proverbial "fair use" of film clip citations on a blog, which is vetoed by Copyrights bureaucracy on TV programs, or film documentaries (expensive fees!). It opens a liberty of creation, montage, collage and détournement on the web, at least for a few more months until the studios enforce some kind of regulation.
Possibility to develop a certain film criticism without a voice-over commentary, by means of images alone, with a dialogue of films themselves (e.g. Matthias Muller), home-movies, vlog, as a form of visual criticism.
Unlimited length. No censor. No editor.

Links cited during the debate :

Revue en ligne : Critikat; Ecran Large; Objectif Cinéma; cinema-take;
Forums : Dvd Classik; DVDrama;
Blogs : Serge Toubiana; alapoursuiteduvent; La Lanterne; Zohiloff; Matière Focale; Bertrand Tavernier; Compagnon Geek; Ce qui nous regarde;
Educational sites : Lumière!; Quai des images; télédoc; Zéro de conduite;

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Related link:

• Responsibilities of Criticism in NYC (New York University seminar on March 13-14, 2008)
• Où va la critique française? (Screenville)
• The 2nd annual Museum of the Moving Image Institute in Film Criticism and Feature Writing
  
• Continuity and Innovation: Contemporary Film Form and Film Criticism (International Conference at the University of Reading, 5-7 September 2008)
• Film Criticism in the Age of the Internet: A Critical Symposium (Cineaste, Vol.33, N°4, Fall 2008)
  and commentaries : Cineaste, Toronto (Girish); Critics vs. Bloggers, Chapter 387: The Cineaste Critical Symposium (Filmbrain)
• Des nouvelles de l'état du monde, Charles Tesson (Spectres du cinéma, automne 2008)