What would a freshman student with no experience in
film studies answer if you asked him/her which film
shows more "skill" or "effort", Titanic (or Pearl
Harbour, if we are to be truly contemporary, although
it hasn't been released here in Spain yet) or Citizen
Kane?
> I do think general audiences respond to displayed
> skill or at least the perceived effort invested into
> an artistic work though this is certainly a vague
> area and probably not in the same way that many of
> us Screen-L'ers would (the "Touch of Evil" example
> is a good one). In music, for example, this
> displayed effort is often part of the signification
> process. Think of a soul singer's sweat or the
> bending of a sax player (subject of a Richard Pryor
> routine) or even the synchronized bowing of an
> orchestral string section (I've heard it argued that
> this has no real effect on the resulting sound). Or
> the classic response to a painting: "My child could
> do that." (Which I actually heard said in the
> National Gallery by a parent in front of Barnett
> Newman's "Stations of the Cross.") Much of the
> controversy over "The Blair Witch Project" was based
> in this same area.
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