I think that this is actually quite a healthy debate, in that opposite opinions and thoughts help one to reexamine one's own thoughts and maybe, occasionally, conceed valid ground. However, neither side should be too quick to dismiss or ignore the other - perhaps Jeremy was guilty of doing this too crudely with regards Bunuel Jarman etc. but this was in no way as bad as the narrow-minded, head-in-the sand, arrogance of the public unsubscriptions. (in my opinion, of course...)

As regards accessibility, I think that there is an important distinction and difference between film as entertainment and film as art - or film as business and film as culture. Both have different motives, methods and results and so it is misleading to apply the same criteria or expectations to both.

Hajnel raises many excellent points, and I think that the complexity and validity of his points about Jarman's Blue proves that this film exists because of and for vastly different reasons than Singin' in the Rain and that the film does lie in an slightly inaccessible intellectual minority. But herein lies it's strength. Maybe some films and film theory disappears 'up its own arse', but just because minority areas of film culture remain obscure and inaccesible, doesn't mean that they are any less valid than Casablanca etc. I'm sure that a lot of academics will quickly point to how Bunuel, Fassbinder etc. have influenced the mainstream. One cannot let market forces and popular opinion define all culture, just in the same way it is vital for society to have gay film culture, black film culture, etc. etc. - these may not be accessible to the average cinemagoer but are nonetheless important.

I would personally like to see film culture become more accessible and film entertainment become deeper, more intelligent - that's not to infer a movement towards art; consider Hitchcock, a director who has probably been studied more by those intellectuals and experts that Jeremy lovingly dislikes, than Bunuel, Jarman and Fassbinder put together.

As a final indication of the murkiness of thought and debate: a friend's favourite film is Casablanca, yet his favourite filmmaker is Fassbinder. My favourite filmmaker is Bunuel, I hate Fassbinder and I adore Singin' in the Rain!