Intellectualization and Art World Development Film in the United States Baumann
Poetics
Available online x February 2022
, 101653
Separating the art from its artist: Picture show reviews in the era of #MeToo
Abstract
This paper addresses the role of critics in evaluating a artistic piece of work when the creator has been accused of sexual misconduct. I explore how critics are influenced by their office as both cultural journalists and experts in the art world of motion-picture show. Critics are often noted as serving as guides for audiences in alleviating quality doubtfulness; hither I volition evidence how critics respond in an example of ethical uncertainty. Conducting a content analysis of 136 movie reviews from 10 different films released effectually the onset of the #MeToo movement, I define the various techniques critics employ to address the allegations against the manager and contain this information into their evaluation of the film. Critics here have strategies for maintaining critical distance and legitimating their subjective emotional responses to the film. After the onset of the #MeToo motion, a noticeable shift in rhetoric can be seen through the simultaneous decrease in the number of reviews for these films and the increase in the proportion of reviews referencing the misconduct. In the unsettled period of the #MeToo era, the technique experiencing the virtually significant rise relates to the way critics found the accusations against the director every bit beingness directly relevant to the quality and content of the film itself.
Introduction
How do nosotros evaluate art that has been produced by someone accused of sexual assault? Every bit mediators between the manufacture and the audience, cultural critics are uniquely positioned to navigate this classic dilemma of separating the art from the artist. Critics establish their potency through their status as connoisseurs of the cultural product nether their review (Blank, 2007). For flick critics, their say-so tin can exist seen in the vital role they played in establishing the field of film as art (Baumann, 2007; Frey, 2015), their influence on consumers' evaluations of film (Jacobs, Heuvelman, Ben Allouch & Peters, 2015), and their use in promotional materials for film (Baumann, 2002; Debenedetti & Ghariani, 2018; Larceneux, 2001).
The growth of the academic field of film was an important step in establishing the perception of picture as art and not just entertainment (Baumann, 2007). Through this transition, film critics took cues from the academic field such as the centrality of auteur theory, or the identification of the manager as the "artist" of the pic with a unique and singular influence on the film's style and content (Allen & Lincoln, 2004; Kersten & Bielby, 2012; Sarris, 1962). Equally mediators between the industry and the audience, flick critics are pushed into position to comment when audiences are questioning the valorization of the directors that are the subject of the critics' expertise.
The trouble of separating the fine art from the artists is not new. However, with the onset of the #MeToo movement, this trouble has gained renewed attention and stances on separating the art from the artist are existence reevaluated during this unsettled time (Swidler, 1986). The inciting scandal and accusations surrounding prominent film producer Harvey Weinstein put the motion picture industry under heightened scrutiny as the #MeToo movement initiated by Tarana Burke became more than widespread (Hutchinson, 2018). This movement has led to both new sexual assault allegations and renewed scrutiny of past allegations for many prominent film directors. Bear witness for the impact of these conversations on film critics tin be readily observed in the articles, op-eds, and published console discussions on the topic of separating the art from the artist in the firsthand aftermath of the Weinstein scandal (Ehrlich, 2017; Goodman, McCarthy, & Kang, 2017).
With this contextual backdrop, this paper aims to reply the question of how moving-picture show critics comprise the allegations confronting the director into their evaluations of the film. Secondarily, I will look at the weather condition nether which these techniques are employed. Drawing on my content analysis of 136 film reviews from the popular review aggregator websites, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, I ascertain the dissimilar critical techniques that film critics use in reviewing these films and place the different conditions under which critics are more or less likely to use those techniques. Here I argue that the various techniques employed by critics are a result of the dual contexts in which they are embedded as both connoisseurs of movie and professional cultural journalists. The techniques specified hither are employed by critics every bit situational strategies that allow them to appoint in the ongoing cultural conversation about the directors within their role equally professional journalists and experts.
Department snippets
Critical context
Scholars take established the influence of critics on a cultural product's legitimation, symbolic value, and economic success (Baumann, 2007; Becker, 1982; Bourdieu, 1993; Debenedetti, 2006; Van Rees, 1989). Through their positioning as intermediaries between producer and consumer, cultural critics influence the soapbox around the production and interpret its artistic value for the consumer (Allen & Lincoln, 2004; Van Rees, 1983). Therefore, when the broader cultural conversation raises
Sample
The sample analyzed here consists of reviews for films directed by men who have been accused of sexual assault or misconduct. Due to the perception of the director as the authorial effigy on the film (Baumann, 2007), film directors are the focus of the analysis here. In club to provide a indicate of comparison, and to observe changes afterwards the onset of the #MeToo motion, directors were selected for this sample (one) if they were accused of sexual assault before the #MeToo movement and (2) take
Findings: Critical techniques
Of the 416 reviews retrieved 136, approximately one third of the reviews, mentioned the allegations confronting the director in some way. My qualitative content analysis revealed vi different techniques that critics used for engaging with the allegations against the director in their reviews which I volition explain in more detail below:
- 1
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providing relevant groundwork (North = 110)
- 2
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arguing for judging the film on its own merits (N = 45)
- 3
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arguing that separating the fine art from the artist is irrelevant hither (Northward = 8)
Analysis of technique employment
Having commencement identified the critical techniques that film critics use to engage with the director's allegations, I now analyze the relative frequency of these techniques to identify the conditions under which critics are likely to utilize the identified techniques.
Give-and-take and determination
The goal of this study was to identify the mode film critics embrace the ongoing controversies surrounding directors accused of sexual attack. The techniques identified here reflect film critics' dual role equally journalists and connoisseurs as well as critics perception of a crisis of dominance.
Like studies in other contexts, (Chong, 2013; Kotisova, 2020) flick critics have strategies for maintaining critical distance in their reviews of films directed by those accused of sexual assault. Film critics
Funding
This research did non receive whatever specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-turn a profit sectors.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the mentorship of David Strang, Filiz Garip, and Malte Ziewitz in the development of this newspaper. I am besides grateful for the comments and suggestions from my peers in the Cornell University sociology practicum, specially Jacqueline Ho and Juhwan Seo for their all-encompassing feedback. I would besides like to thank Laura Adler for helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this paper. Finally, I am thankful to C.A. Smith and Sean Bock for their valuable support.
Reid Ralston is a doctoral pupil in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University. His research interests are in economic folklore, the sociology of evaluation, cultural industries, social movements, and social networks. His current work focuses on the ongoing cultural impact of the #MeToo motility.
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Reid Ralston is a doctoral student in the Department of Folklore at Cornell University. His research interests are in economical sociology, the sociology of evaluation, cultural industries, social movements, and social networks. His current work focuses on the ongoing cultural impact of the #MeToo movement.
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