V. Film, Poetry, and Making Connections

Extract

The growth of film criticism in modern reception studies presents in a particularly acute form many of the issues of method with which other areas of reception are also grappling. In addition, it brings together under the umbrella of one art form the sometimes uneasy relationship between ‘high’ cultures and popular forms of entertainment. ‘Spectacle’ has to be analysed alongside that of the most nuanced ‘avant-garde’ production techniques. Film has been closely related to drama in terms of analytic approaches, not just because of its links with the subject matter of ancient texts but because it is, like theatre, a performative medium; although, unlike a staged performance, the conditions in which it is created both assume and facilitate its preservation. Yet some aspects of film also move close to poetry. Film-poems based on ancient texts and paradigms have encouraged a more self-referential approach, reflecting on the relationship between words and images in both public and private contexts of reception. It will become clear from the discussion which follows that film receptions have some significant overlaps with those in drama and poetry. Film is now an established area in reception research and has developed critical approaches and methods rigorously tailored to the medium. Classical reception and film studies also reveal in a particularly acute way the tensions between ‘traditional’ approaches and more radical forms of analysis.