After all, most movie-goers work on what in cognitive psychology is called “the recency effect.” Our memories of things we’ve just experienced are more vivid in our minds than those from longer ago, even though those older experiences may have seemed equally intense or pleasurable at the time.
[...]
More generally, the recency effect tends to be borne out when one of my colleagues in film studies here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison surveys their students at the beginning of a course. The goal is to find out something about their knowledge of film going into the class. One question, “What is your favorite film?” almost invariably elicits a title released in the past year or so.
[...]
This entry on Jim’s blog led to a touchy exchange in his comments section about whether he and the other participants in the dialogue were being condescending to “average viewers.” This sort of disagreement seems inevitable, since people who know a great deal about any subject are likely to seem condescending to people who don’t, even if that is not their intention. But the question I’m asking is not whether “average viewers” have good taste. Some do, some don’t. So far I’ve just been trying to figure out why many of them seem determined to ask experts questions that will very likely expose their own lack of knowledge.
Beyond that issue, though, is the symptomatic implication of these two nearly universal cocktail-party questions. I think people are more apt to ask “What do you think the greatest film is?” than “What do you think the greatest opera is?” because film is still taken less seriously as an art-form than are the “high” arts. Most people think they know more about film than they do about opera because almost anyone you and I are likely to meet goes to movies more than to operas. The fact that a steady diet of well-reviewed, even Oscar-nominated Hollywood films remains only a tiny slice of the entire range of surviving movies made so far doesn’t occur to them. The same is true even for those who see the occasional indie or foreign-language film.
[...]
David was once talking with a distinguished literary scholar who would have been appalled if someone in a university had never heard of Faulkner or Thomas Mann. But when David [Bordwell] said he admired many Japanese films, the scholar asked incredulously, “All those Godzilla movies?”
That’s really the crux of what bothers me about the awkward great-film/favorite-film question. If it’s a non-academic who asks it, it tends to be a conversation-stopper, which is unfortunate. But anyone is entitled to love the movies they want to love and to believe, if they wish, that Avatar is the greatest film ever made.
[...]
A final note. If anything I have said here sounds “elitist,” you might consider the vast movement we see occurring in this country’s politics, especially on the far right, where any learning at all is equated with elitism and any experience in public office is equated with being tainted. When our educational system is being systematically downgraded, expecting people to learn things is simple common sense.
#12 Ja tusind tak for det link. Det var meget interessant læsning. Blev netop i går udsat for "det spørgsmål" fra et par kollegaer og jeg ville have ønsket, jeg lige havde haft denne i baghovedet :)
Alle har et fradrag, Helle hun har to ... Helle ... havets tournedos
Jeg nød i den grad at læse det, fordi hun respekterer de "udenforstående", samtidig med at hun indirekte efterlyser nysgerrighed, større indsigt og selverkendelse.
Hendes nyfundne måde at besvare spørgsmålet på er højst interessant:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=13153 skrev:
I think I’ve come up with a better way to answer these questions. I’ll say something like, “Well, lately I’ve really enjoyed True Grit and Toy Story 3.” This dodges the question, but the person is bound to have heard of these, likely to have seen one or both, and may well have something to say about them—though I hope it isn’t “Yes, that’s the best film I’ve ever seen.”
At hun på den måde kommer spørgeren i møde vil højst sandsynligt resultere i nedenstående situation med omvendt fortegn.
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=13153 skrev:
Almost invariably the smile on my interlocutor’s face fades into disappointment as he or she admits to never having heard of any of these films, let alone having seen them. Awkward pause, with conversation turning to other matters or my making a feeble attempt to say sometime to encourage the person to give these films a try.
#11 Highland Park 14 år siden
"More work for the eyes"
Gå heller ikke glip af:
"The eye’s mind"
#12 Highland Park 13 år siden
#13 mr gaijin 13 år siden
#14 Bruce 13 år siden
#15 Highland Park 13 år siden
Hendes nyfundne måde at besvare spørgsmålet på er højst interessant:
At hun på den måde kommer spørgeren i møde vil højst sandsynligt resultere i nedenstående situation med omvendt fortegn.
#16 Bruce 13 år siden
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Film-History-Introduction-...
eller
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Routledge-Companion-Philos...
Jeg har på fornemmelsen, at der er mere "guld" i sidstnævnte og mere "af det samme" i den første.