This book examines film reviewing and screenwriting as key sites of cultural mediation, providing new insights on the relationship between criticism and reviewing, as well as the way reviewers handle concepts of story, dialogue, and narrative.
Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu on the cultural field, and his theory of taste, the book provides an assessment of the place of film reviewing in contemporary screen culture. The book analyses a case study comprised of ten years of television scripts of the Australian film reviewing programme, At the Movies (2004–2014). Hosted by two of Australia’s most eminent film critics, Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, for over two decades, this study of At the Movies provides a unique window into film reviewing, movie consumption, and wider cultural attitudes in this period of Australian cultural history. It examines the programme’s cultural significance, and the contribution of Margaret and David to screen culture.
This book makes a significant contribution to an under-studied area of media studies (the review), screenwriting research through the analysis of broadcast scripts, and cultural studies through the study of an important television programme.
About At the Movies
List of Abbreviations
List of Tables
List of Figures
Preface
A Case Study Approach
Margaret and David as Cultural Mediators
Reviewing as Performance
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. At the Movies, Reviewing, and Screenwriting
From Elective to Selective Affinities
Film Reviewing
Two approaches: Functionalism and rhetoric
Shifting the criticism/reviewing distinction Screenwriting
Chapter 2. At the Movies and its Influence
The Business of Managing the Review Process
Debunking the powerful critic theory
The Margaret and David Effect
A Variable Cultural Field: From Restricted to Large-Scale
The Persona of the Critic
The Responsibilities of the Reviewer
Proximity to industry
The Australian new wave
Chapter 3. Arbiters of taste.
Inside the Gut
Where the Reviewer Sits
Summary Judgements
The Gospel According to David and Margaret
Taste, Taste Culture, or Cultural Forum
Chapter 4. The Politics of Classification
Ken Park (2002)
Romper Stomper (1992)
Wolf Creek 2 (2013)
Chapter 5. Three Discourse Frames (Australia, 1987–2002)
Frame 1: Funding Methods and Creative Outcomes
Frame 2: The Crisis in the Film Industry and the Script as Problematic Object
Frame 3: The Doxa
Chapter 6. The Discursive Construction of Screenwriting in At the Movies (2004–2014)
Method
Coding: Script, Screenplay, Screenwriter
Analysis
Chapter 7. The Well-Made Screenplay: At the Movies as an Aesthetic Enterprise
Performing the Doxa
Problematizations and Conclusions
Chapter 8. In Interview: David Stratton on Reviewing and At the Movies
Chapter 9. In Interview: Margaret Pomeranz on Reviewing and At the Movies
Appendix 1: Notes on method, verification and exclusions
Appendix 2: ‘Written by’
Appendix 3: DVD classics
Appendix 4: Selective reference list of descriptors used by Margaret and David
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