Artists in the Audience: Cults, Camp, and American Film Criticism.

by Greg Taylor

Gone with the Wind an inspiration for the American avant-garde? Mickey Mouse a crucial source for the development of cutting-edge intellectual and aesthetic ideas? As Greg Taylor shows in this witty and provocative book, the idea is not so far-fetched. One of the first-ever studies of American film criticism, Artists in the Audience shows that film critics, beginning in the 1940s, turned to the movies as raw material to be molded into a more radical modernism than that offered by any other contemporary artists or thinkers. In doing so, they offered readers a vanguard alternative that reshaped postwar American nonaesthetic mass culture reconceived and refashioned into rich, personally relevant art by the attuned, creative spectator.

Genres: Film

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[$am · Rating 5 out of 5]

very insightful and provocative overview of vanguard film tastes and reading strategies in the 20th century. should be essential work for anyone wishing to "critique" cinema.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very insightful read and I would have given it 4 stars except the author seemed overly preoccupied with ensuring that he was perceived as academic and less interested in clarity.

[Jessie B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found the writing very opaque and I couldn't really engage with what was being said as a result. If it wasn't so short I would have abandoned it.