Sure. And I'd like to see fewer bad movies also.
G
Alexander Soifer wrote:
> > The complaint against criticism is a bit like the complaint against
> art. Dear Ross: The trouble with criticism is that it is very seldom
> art. Critics are seldom subjective enough, and rarely brave. Often
> they merely try to please the public, editor, peers -- and thus engage
> in a conservative guessing game. > You only have to read Aristotle or
> Plato or Samuel Johnson or Walter Benjamin or Andre Bazin or Serge
> Daney to see the value of criticism. Just read Leonard Maltin -- must
> I quote from him? I admit, only one art critic's' works impressed me
> as powerfully as great art he discovered. His name: Abram Efros. In
> the introduction to his "Profiles" book (1933), he declared that he
> treated the profiled artists (Chagall, Serov, Kuznetsov, etc.) as the
> latter treated their models. This art approach, combined with
> impeccable taste, sharp eye and pen, produced art. It allowed Efros,
> for example, to be first to discover Chagall. In film criticism, for
> example, I was interested in Harold Kennedy's article on Andrei
> Tarkovsky, entitled something like "On Andrei Tarkovsky: Sketches in 9
> Parts" (Film Comment, 1980s). The early Peter Cowie's monograph
> "Antonioni, Bergman, Resnais" (1962?) was good... I am not against
> criticism, but would like to see more criticism that is
> art. Sincerely, Alexander Soifer
--
WHEN THE LEADERS SPEAK OF PEACE
The common folk know
That war is coming.
When the leaders curse war
The mobilization order is already written out.
-- Bertolt Brecht
From A German War Primer
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