Vulgar auteurism

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Vulgar auteurism is a movement that emerged in early 2010s cinephilia and film criticism associated with championing or reappraising filmmakers, mostly those working in the horror, sci-fi and action genres and whose work has otherwise received little attention or negative reception in the critical mainstream. [1] [2] It became a controversial topic in the cinephile community following the publication of an article in the Village Voice in 2013 and has been described as "a critical movement committed to assessing the 'unserious' artistry of popcorn cinema with absolute seriousness."

Contents

Background

According to film critic Peter Labuza, vulgar auteurism "seems to have been an unconscious movement before it ever had a name", as the earliest criticism identified as exhibiting "vulgar auteurism" was published in the Canadian film magazine Cinema Scope in 2006 and 2007. [3] Cinema Scope writer Andrew Tracy coined the term in his 2009 article, "Vulgar Auteurism: The Case of Michael Mann". [4] Initially pejorative, [4] the term was repurposed by MUBI user John Lehtonen. [4] Over the years which followed, MUBI's online film magazine began to publish more and more articles defending genres and directors that were unpopular with the critical mainstream.

It derives its name [5] from the auteur theory, a key component of film criticism which posits that the director is the author ("auteur") of a film and that films should be analyzed in terms of how they fit into a director's larger body of work. [6] Also known as "auteurism," the auteur theory was introduced by French critics associated with the film magazine Cahiers du cinéma during the 1950s and popularized in the United States in the 1960s by Andrew Sarris. [7]

In 1981, J. Hoberman coined the term "vulgar modernism" [8] to describe the "looney" fringes of American popular culture (e.g. the animators Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, MAD Magazine, controversial stand up comedian Lenny Bruce, TV pioneer Ernie Kovacs and the films of Frank Tashlin). [9] [10] [11]

Several critics, including Richard Brody of The New Yorker and Scott Foundas of Variety , have drawn parallels between the earliest French and American proponents of the auteur theory and vulgar auteurism. However, many commentators on the movement consider vulgar auteurism to be distinct from the classical auteur theory, pointing to its concern with visual style over theme. The question of whether vulgar auteurism is a legitimate separate movement or a subset of the auteur theory is a point of disagreement among film critics.

Vulgar auteurist ideas gained currency when one of the movement's leading proponents, [12] critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, became the co-host of the television program Ebert Presents: At the Movies , produced by Roger Ebert. However, while "vulgar auteurist" criticism was becoming popular, the term and the movement to which it corresponded remained obscure until the publication of an article by Calum Marsh, "Fast & Furious & Elegant: Justin Lin and the Vulgar Auteurs", in The Village Voice on May 24, 2013. [13] [14]

Controversy and criticism

Marsh's article was immediately controversial. [13] While some took issue with the films and filmmakers being championed by the proponents of vulgar auteurism, others took issue with the idea that vulgar auteurism was a movement distinct from the auteur theory. [4]

Former Village Voice critic Nick Pinkerton has been associated with vulgar auteurism, as he has written essays in praise of directors championed by the movement and whose 2012 article "The Bigger and Better Mousetraps of Paul W. S. Anderson" has been described as vulgar auteurist. [13] [14] However, Pinkerton has been critical of the movement; in an article written in response to Marsh's, he decried the term "vulgar auteurism" as "a shameless attention grab", arguing that "no persuasive argument has yet been made for why the phrase should be vitally necessary to modify old, fuddy-duddy Auteurism." [15] He further objected to the argument that film critics routinely panned the works of directors included within the movement, writing, " Fast & Furious 6 , which we're assured is scorned by critics the world over, currently stands at 61% at Metacritic, above The Great Gatsby (54%), and within striking distance of arty jazz like Simon Killer and Post Tenebras Lux ." [15]

Soraya Roberts, in her article "Indie Cinema Is Now Genre Cinema" written for the website Defector, stated that "Vulgar auteurism has given way to capital auteurism." [16]

Notable directors associated with the movement

See also

Similar debates

Related Research Articles

<i>Cahiers du Cinéma</i> French film journal

Cahiers du Cinéma is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs—Objectif 49 and Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin.

Formalist film theory is an approach to film theory that is focused on the formal or technical elements of a film: i.e., the lighting, scoring, sound and set design, use of color, shot composition, and editing. This approach was proposed by Hugo Münsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein, and Béla Balázs. Today, formalist film theory is a recognized approach in film studies.

Andrew Sarris was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism.

Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind reality. It is sometimes called observational cinema, if understood as pure direct cinema: mainly without a narrator's voice-over. There are subtle, yet important, differences between terms expressing similar concepts. Direct cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera's presence: operating within what Bill Nichols, an American historian and theoretician of documentary film, calls the "observational mode", a fly on the wall. Many therefore see a paradox in drawing attention away from the presence of the camera and simultaneously interfering in the reality it registers when attempting to discover a cinematic truth.

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The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced the types of film produced, their production and marketing, and the way major studios approached filmmaking. In New Hollywood films, the film director, rather than the studio, took on a key authorial role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Hoberman</span> American film critic

James Lewis Hoberman is an American film critic, journalist, author and academic. He began working at The Village Voice in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic from 1988 to 2012. In 1981, he coined the term "vulgar modernism" to describe the "looney" fringes of American popular culture.

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References

  1. ↑ Brunsting, Joshua (2013-06-11). "What Vulgar Auteurism Gets Wrong". CriterionCast. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  2. ↑ Tracy, Andrew (2013-05-31). "Trash Humping: On "Vulgar Auteurism"". Cinema Scope. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  3. ↑ Foundas, Scott. "'Pompeii' doesn't suck: Paul W.S. Anderson and Vulgar Auteurism". Variety.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Labuza, Peter (June 3, 2013). "Expressive Esoterica in the 21st Century—Or: What Is Vulgar Auteurism?". LabuzaMovies.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-13. Retrieved 2014-02-26.
  5. ↑ Brody, Richard. "A Few Thoughts on Vulgar Auteurism". The New Yorker.
  6. 1 2 3 Vulgar auteurism and Justin Lin|Westword
  7. ↑ Why It's OK to Love Bad Movies - Google Books (ch. "The Good, The Bad and the Good-Bad")
  8. ↑ Japanese Film and the Challenge of Video - Google Books (pg.1981)
  9. ↑ Vulgar Modernism - Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
  10. ↑ Vulgar Modernism - Artfourm International
  11. ↑ Film Theory - Google Books (pg.171)
  12. ↑ Patches, Matt (February 21, 2014). "The Other Paul Anderson: The Psychotic Action Vision of 'Pompeii' Director Paul W.S. Anderson". Grantland .
  13. 1 2 3 Singer, Matt. "Some Refined Discussion About Vulgar Auteurism".
  14. 1 2 Kenigsberg, Ben. "From the Wire: Pinkerton's Notes on Vulgar Auteurism". Indiewire.
  15. 1 2 Pinkerton, Nick. "BOMBAST #96". SundanceNow. Archived from the original on 2014-03-02. Retrieved 2014-02-26.
  16. ↑ Indie Cinema Is Now Genre Cinema|Defector
  17. ↑ Monster Hunter Review: Paul W.S. Anderson Crafts a Hyperkinetic, Faithful Videogame Adaptation|The Film Stage
  18. ↑ New to Streaming: To the Wonder, Monster Hunter, Nomadland, Test Pattern & More|The Film Stage
  19. ↑ The Never-ending Quest to Adapt 'Resident Evil' - The Ringer
  20. 1 2 Why It's OK to Love Bad Movies - Google Books (ch.5, pg.168)
  21. 1 2 3 4 Daily | "What Is Vulgar Auteurism?" - Keyframe
  22. 1 2 3 4 The Elusive Auteur - Google Books
  23. ↑ Direct Action: how stars like Scott Adkins are landing more hits direct to viewers · Journal · A Letterboxd Magazine · Letterboxd
  24. 1 2 3 4 Mortal Kombat Shouldn’t Forget the Pulpy Fun of Paul W.S. Anderson’s Original - The Escapist
  25. 1 2 3 Vulgar Auteurism Needs to Drop the "Vulgar" - PopQptiq
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 FilmSlot: Vulgar Auteurism: As Low As It Goes - Filmkrant
  27. 1 2 3 Obsessed With the Image: Vulgar Auteurism and Post-Cinematic Affect in the Late Films of Tony Scott by Ethan Cartwright|Chapman University
  28. 1 2 Start your engines: Seventh ‘Furious’ film provides winning shot of adrenaline - Columbia Daily Tribune
  29. 1 2 Film Criticism in the Digital Age - Google Books (ch."The Persistence of Auteurism")
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 Vulgar Auteurism-Film Theory
  31. 1 2 Fresh blood: Three Great Directors of Direct-to-Video Action|Balder and Dash|Roger Ebert.com
  32. ↑ The artistic genius of Michael Bay – Macleans.ca
  33. ↑ The Michael Bay 'Ambulance' Movie Review Drinking Game - Rolling Stone
  34. 1 2 3 Review: Pieta - Slant Magazine
  35. ↑ "Vulgar Auteurism": Out with the New, In with the Old|Antenna
  36. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Vulgar Auteurism: A Guide Or: The "Mann-Scott-Baysians" - MUBI
  37. 1 2 3 4 5 6 For Love of the Vulgar - MUBI
  38. 1 2 3 The 10 Most Underrated American Independent Films of The 1990s - Page 2 - Taste of Cinema
  39. ↑ 'Dressed to Kill' and 'The Hunger': So Lethal, So Very Fashionable
  40. ↑ The Golden Age of TV: Rise of the Television Auteur|Facets Features
  41. ↑ Army of Milla: Resident Evil and Modern Auteurism-End of Cinema
  42. ↑ Secret Defense: Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous" on Notebook|MUBI
  43. ↑ Why Clint Eastwood Can't Buy Into The Idea Of An 'Auteur' Director|/Film
  44. 1 2 Vulgar Auteurs on Apple Podcasts
  45. ↑ Ms.45 - NOW Magazine
  46. ↑ Vern Tells It Like It Is: Those Damn Vulgarians-Vern's Reviews on the Films of Cinema
  47. ↑ The rise and fall of auteur theory - Film Stories
  48. ↑ FOR CRITERION CONSIDERATION: SOFIA COPPOLA’S MARIE ANTOINETTE - CrriterionCast.com
  49. ↑ Back to "Basic" on Notebook|MUBI
  50. ↑ The Noteworthy: R.I.P. Nagisa Oshima (1932–2013), The Formative Years of Cinema, Foreign Languages on Notebook|MUBI
  51. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films - Google Books (pg.12)
  52. ↑ Smearing the Senses: Tony Scott, Action Painter on Notebook|MUBI
  53. ↑ Tony Scott: A Moving Target—Movement A on Notebook|MUBI
  54. ↑ 35 Years On, Why I've Never Lost That Loving Feeling For 'Top Gun'|WBUR
  55. ↑ "Heaven's Gate" and Film Maudit Culture - Film at Lincoln Center
  56. ↑ It's time to take a serious look at Zack Snyder - Little White Lies
  57. ↑ Zack Snyder's Worst to Best Movies|The Artifice
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