Off Topic: Film Criticism in the Age of the Internet

[eigagogo@free.fr]

Interesting topic!

Regarding ?modern criticism?, I?ve always be surprised that Japanese cinema
?electronic promotion? seems now only to rely on voluntary people.
In this 21th century, isn?t there an opportunity for some ?professional?
publication made by researcher/journalist people? Or some ?official publication?
financed by cinema foundation?  It?s rather depressing to think that without the
?voluntary? Midnight eye, there would be virtually nothing widely available
regarding Japanese cinema! Korean cinema has a free quarterly publication,
couldn?t the same be made for Japanese cinema?



Selon Rob Smith <robixsmash at gmail.com>:

> Helo everyone.
>
> This is not a Japanese film specific topic, but since so many of you work
> for newspapers (and I do, too, but as a music journalist, not film -- I just
> have a personal website to write about film on), run serious websites
> (Midnight Eye, ryuganji.net, etc) or have had books on film published (and
> I'm sure there are some other bloggers out there, too), I'm curious on what
> the general take on the topic is from this list.
>
> "Film Criticism in the Age of the Internet: A Critical Symposium"
> *Cineaste,* Vol. 33 No.4 (Fall 2008)
>
> http://www.cineaste.com/articles/film-criticism-in-the-age-of-the-internet.htm
>
> Some interesting points, I thought:
>
> "There have been a few examples of Internet criticism making an impact on
> American film culture. It's aided the rise of South Korean cinema and
> mumblecore," says Steve Erickson of Gay City News.
> -To bring it on topic a little bit, I think this is also true of the
> "extreme" Japanese films and filmmakers, especially the likes of Takashi
> Miike and Hideo Nakataa. They were both cult on the internet long before
> Hollywood stepped in to remake or import their films. It's also true of
> smaller, or dramatic, directors like Shunji Iwai, Satoshi Miki, or Shinobu
> Yaguchi and had a definite impact concerning older, more obscure directors
> getting a spotlight, like Mikio Naruse before Criterion and BFI had put any
> of his films out on DVD, or before the Film Forum had their retrospective a
> few years ago.
> (I choose to not mention anime here, but the internet has clearly had the
> biggest imapct on that world than any other.)
>
> This is by Self-styled Siren: "Criticism at the big media outlets usually
> has been release-driven, geared to reviewing a new movie in theaters or on
> DVD. Bloggers write about whatever we please, which I assume is why some
> professional critics blog on the side. In my case, the movies I care about
> are long, long past their release date. At the moment there's no mainstream
> print publication that will pay me to write about Jean Negulesco or three
> Titanic movies because I happen to feel like it."
> -This mirrors my own opinions, but I also can't help but feel a twinge of
> guilt for having my website when the likes of Nathan Lee from the Voice get
> fired (especially when the likes of Rex Reed and Jeffrey Lyons are safely
> tucked into bed at night with their job security). It's something in my job
> as a music writer that I absolutely hate: if I get a CD in the mail a week
> late, I can't do anything about it. I love the freedom on my own website
> where I can write about whatever the hell movie from whatever year I feel
> like writing about, even if I don't necessarily take it as seriously (or
> shape it as much) as I would if I were writing a print review.
>
> J. Hoberman sums it up best, though, I think: "On the one hand, blogs are
> spontaneous and unedited; on the other, blogs are spontaneous and unedited."
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
> --
> -rob
> http://www.robixsmash.com/
> http://www.orlandoweekly.com/music/
> http://www.insulinfunk.net/
>