So…first ftc day. Did everyone have fun? I know I did, except for the billions of microscopic ants crawling in my bra. Try being bitten by those buggers when you’re attempting to focus on film theory. Quite a difficult task, I’ll tell you.
In between twitching spastically, though, I enjoyed a lot of the points made in the articles we read. Especially I enjoyed the contrast between genre film and the notion of film as high art, and mutual exclusivity that seemed to exist between the two. A genre film, due to the preconceived notions involved in the concept of a genre (both in terms of syntactic and semantic elements), is prohibited by convention from ascending to the realm of high art, due to the fact that a genre film does not possess the originality or depth of a high art film. Disregarding completely the thorny issue of what makes high art and if directors indeed should or do aspire to it in filmmaking, I find the very existence of the genre film to be interesting. Critics and theorists can complain about the inferiority of the genre film when compared to the high art film, but the genre film entered existence, gained popularity, and will continue to enjoy patronage while high art films languish in rare art house theatres without the praise of critics because it is mandated by the audience. As discussed in the first essay, the different genres of film came into existence because of an expressed audience preference for certain cinematic elements. The more of a film the audience demanded, the more films in that genre were made, the more that genre grew, the more established it became, the more of an audience it developed. Thus the genre system, however shallow or commercial it may be viewed as, is in reality a self-perpetuating one, a cycle in which audience and film feed on each other.
The high art film, in contrast, does not share the same relationship with its audience. Instead of being tied intimately with the audience in the manner of the genre film, the high art film stands away and apart from its audience. The audience is free to approach the film, stand, admire, and walk away enlightened, but this will not help in the creation of more high art films or increase their success. The high art film holds its value aloof from measurement in terms of commercial success, and thus will always exist apart from the audience. I personally would argue that art is art, with or without someone there to see it.