Film Theory: Middle-Brow Taste, Class Distinctions
Middle-brow is not a distinct or coherent social fragment.
Middlebrow is inherently complex and multi-identity
Bourdieu wrote as if his categorizations were uniformed, unitary, discrete social reifications
But in actuality the categories (distinctions) are not fully self-c0ontained taste-systems, with no contact with each other.
It’s oversimplified hierarchy.
The complications of race in the U.S., or regions or class in France.
The shuttling is not a sign of muddiness or confusion, but a variety of specificity.
The defining characteristics of middlebrow is its ability to shift, slide between various taste positions at different moments of experience.
There is almost free access (in theory) to all brows, to the potential experience of all aspects of the cultural spectrum.
The very rise of lowbrow is made possible, and is a consequence, of mass culture.
Middlebrow’s upward mobility through cultural attainment and conflicted affect vis-a-vis high culture.
High-culture and highbrow is also capable of an amalgam of sentiments.
The notion of communion, to be celebrated only with certain people who are capable of enjoying it in the same way (restaurants, wine)
Middlebrow embodies more than any taste-fragment te full ramifications of cultural experience in a postmodern, polyculture, media-saturated society.
Exposure to a manifold of cultural experiences is widely available and accessible.
The middle-class American middle-brow shuttles between various symbolic expressions of class positions over the course of a single day.
Breakfast at McDonald, or at home, while watching Good Morning America
Driving BMW (or Porsche) to work, while listening to Rock, or classical music (Mozart)
Driving back home in the Hollywood Hills, listening to different kinds of music
Eating Steak or Hamburger, while drinking Vodka Martini or expensive red wine
Watching soap, sitcom (Friends) or foreign language film (or both)
Read in bed one chapter of Dostoevsky, Chekhov, or Tom Wolfe, or trashy novel, or gossipy magazines
Research in Progress: June 26, 2021
Film: Middlebrow Sensibility and Ideology (“Friendly Persuasion,” “Places in the Heart”)
They are often feel-good inspirational features about serious issues and noble heroes.
Triumph of the spirit and will against all odds.
Films that don’t actively use their visual registry to produce meaning.
Liberal films that do nothing in terms of visual elaboration to compensate for their verbal explicitness or conventional narratives–films without personal or pronounced style.
Noble films that make important social statements about the world, or real-life events and personalities.
A Beautiful Mind (2001):
The story of schizophrenic scientist has Oscar bait all over it, from the moment that mainstream director Ron Howard and star Russell Crowe had committed to the project.
Unlike many of its competitors, the movie did live up to its hype.
Fried Green Tomatoes:
A feature that sanitizes and sentimentalize its brutal issues (racism), and glosses over the novel’s more explicit lesbianism.
Gandhi:
Sort of a sanitized version in a salable package, full of goof intentions and noble sentiments.
Shine:
Hoberman:
“Shine is the generically perfect Miramax movie–emotionally effusive, middle-brow glitz.”
Verdict:
Lumet’s solid, if old-fashioned, courtroom drama, with a strong and measured performance by Paul Newman
Films
Beautiful Mind
Friendly Persuasion
Fried Green Tomatoes
Gandhi
Places in the Heart
Sounder
Verdict, The
Directors of middlebrow movies
Fred Zinnemann
Actors: Oscar Winners (1997)
In 1997, Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting) vs. Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights): Reynolds character can’t distinguish between vulgarity and art.
Robin Williams tells a self-proclaimed genius (Matt Damon) that nothing is at fault. Williams won, possibly because his role was more reassuring, even if it echoed the role of Judd Hirsch in Ordinary People (the warm, sensitive Jewish therapist).
The notion of making films that will appeal to and please the largest possible audiences, and will offend no one.
Razor’s Edge (1946): high-faluting work, about the search of meaning and significance.
Friendly Persuasion (1956): a film about homespun, of tasteful pathos, often nostalgic for the uncomplicated past.
Places in the Heart (1984): a work of encrusted gentility, smooth meticulousness, humanity
Kael: Robert Benton’s gentle presentation muffles the town’s rough edges. His craftsmanship is like an armor built u around his refusal to outrage or offend anyone,
Film Theory: Taste Structure, Class Distinctions (Bourdieu; Middlebrow)
Research in progress, Oct 16, 2022
Film Theory: Middle-Brow Taste, Class Distinctions
Middle-brow is not a distinct or coherent social fragment.
Middlebrow is inherently complex and multi-identity
Bourdieu wrote as if his categorizations were uniformed, unitary, discrete social reifications
But in actuality the categories (distinctions) are not fully self-c0ontained taste-systems, with no contact with each other.
It’s oversimplified hierarchy.
The complications of race in the U.S., or regions or class in France.
The shuttling is not a sign of muddiness or confusion, but a variety of specificity.
The defining characteristics of middlebrow is its ability to shift, slide between various taste positions at different moments of experience.
There is almost free access (in theory) to all brows, to the potential experience of all aspects of the cultural spectrum.
The very rise of lowbrow is made possible, and is a consequence, of mass culture.
Middlebrow’s upward mobility through cultural attainment and conflicted affect vis-a-vis high culture.
High-culture and highbrow is also capable of an amalgam of sentiments.
The notion of communion, to be celebrated only with certain people who are capable of enjoying it in the same way (restaurants, wine)
Middlebrow embodies more than any taste-fragment te full ramifications of cultural experience in a postmodern, polyculture, media-saturated society.
Exposure to a manifold of cultural experiences is widely available and accessible.
The middle-class American middle-brow shuttles between various symbolic expressions of class positions over the course of a single day.
Breakfast at McDonald, or at home, while watching Good Morning America
Driving BMW (or Porsche) to work, while listening to Rock, or classical music (Mozart)
Driving back home in the Hollywood Hills, listening to different kinds of music
Eating Steak or Hamburger, while drinking Vodka Martini or expensive red wine
Watching soap, sitcom (Friends) or foreign language film (or both)
Read in bed one chapter of Dostoevsky, Chekhov, or Tom Wolfe, or trashy novel, or gossipy magazines
Research in Progress: June 26, 2021
Film: Middlebrow Sensibility and Ideology (“Friendly Persuasion,” “Places in the Heart”)
They are often feel-good inspirational features about serious issues and noble heroes.
Triumph of the spirit and will against all odds.
Films that don’t actively use their visual registry to produce meaning.
Liberal films that do nothing in terms of visual elaboration to compensate for their verbal explicitness or conventional narratives–films without personal or pronounced style.
Noble films that make important social statements about the world, or real-life events and personalities.
A Beautiful Mind (2001):
The story of schizophrenic scientist has Oscar bait all over it, from the moment that mainstream director Ron Howard and star Russell Crowe had committed to the project.
Unlike many of its competitors, the movie did live up to its hype.
Fried Green Tomatoes:
A feature that sanitizes and sentimentalize its brutal issues (racism), and glosses over the novel’s more explicit lesbianism.
Gandhi:
Sort of a sanitized version in a salable package, full of goof intentions and noble sentiments.
Shine:
Hoberman:
“Shine is the generically perfect Miramax movie–emotionally effusive, middle-brow glitz.”
Verdict:
Lumet’s solid, if old-fashioned, courtroom drama, with a strong and measured performance by Paul Newman
Films
Beautiful Mind
Friendly Persuasion
Fried Green Tomatoes
Gandhi
Places in the Heart
Sounder
Verdict, The
Directors of middlebrow movies
Fred Zinnemann
Actors: Oscar Winners (1997)
In 1997, Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting) vs. Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights): Reynolds character can’t distinguish between vulgarity and art.
Robin Williams tells a self-proclaimed genius (Matt Damon) that nothing is at fault. Williams won, possibly because his role was more reassuring, even if it echoed the role of Judd Hirsch in Ordinary People (the warm, sensitive Jewish therapist).
The notion of making films that will appeal to and please the largest possible audiences, and will offend no one.
Razor’s Edge (1946): high-faluting work, about the search of meaning and significance.
Friendly Persuasion (1956): a film about homespun, of tasteful pathos, often nostalgic for the uncomplicated past.
Places in the Heart (1984): a work of encrusted gentility, smooth meticulousness, humanity
Kael: Robert Benton’s gentle presentation muffles the town’s rough edges. His craftsmanship is like an armor built u around his refusal to outrage or offend anyone,