I had an argument the other day with a chap who works at the NFT. I mentioned that I wrote part of a MA thesis on Fassbinder and got an (often quite funny but anyway) tirade about the evils of film that doesn't entertain and so forth, and on the primacy of spectacle, the box office and whatnot- and that to ignore this is to miss the point of film itself.
Obviously this argument can be demolished easily enough, but what I thought was curious was that I might have made a similar point about music- I can imagine defending the 3 minute pop song much more than I ever would the blockbuster. I remember being incredibly annoyed by Freaky Trigger's Top 100 films for instance- the anti-canonical in discussion of film just comes across as irritating and trite, 'why tony scott is better than kiarostami' or whatever. But up until around the 70s, most of my favourite films are in some way crassly commercial...sooo...the question I'm asking in a garbled fashion is-
what is film popism? What is its canon, and what makes it different from musical popism? (which i may disagree with, but share many of the musical tastes of its proponents) does anyone fancy arguing in favour of it?
also anyone who wants to call me a ponce for preferring watching Cries and Whispers for the millionth time rather than any of the Lord of the Rings films is welcome to do so
Obviously this argument can be demolished easily enough, but what I thought was curious was that I might have made a similar point about music- I can imagine defending the 3 minute pop song much more than I ever would the blockbuster. I remember being incredibly annoyed by Freaky Trigger's Top 100 films for instance- the anti-canonical in discussion of film just comes across as irritating and trite, 'why tony scott is better than kiarostami' or whatever. But up until around the 70s, most of my favourite films are in some way crassly commercial...sooo...the question I'm asking in a garbled fashion is-
what is film popism? What is its canon, and what makes it different from musical popism? (which i may disagree with, but share many of the musical tastes of its proponents) does anyone fancy arguing in favour of it?
also anyone who wants to call me a ponce for preferring watching Cries and Whispers for the millionth time rather than any of the Lord of the Rings films is welcome to do so