The "Other" Film Spectator | Alternatives to Spectatorship: Bringing the Art Back to Cinema

Film collage–courtesy of J. Bergman, Film Criticism and Theory and Film Studies student, class of 2022

Dear Readers:

It is time to bring some hidden or forgotten films to the forefront . They may or may not be considered mainstream cinema. My website is solely about “alternatives” to spectatorship while reflecting on films as art. Let us rethink how we respond to films.

N. Molina

Courtesy of A. Perloff Film Criticism and Theory student, Class of 2016 — *The Shining* and Spirited Away art pieces courtesy of A. Perloff, Film Studies and Film Criticism and Theory student, Class of 2016

“The MGM logo, famous for its roaring lion, also bears the motto Ars Gratia Artis (Art for Arts Sake”). The irony of this is now doubled…. Art had to make money.” Sydney Lumet (director), Making Movies, 1995.

"Although Spielberg has made beautiful, artistic pictures as good as any, he had an instinct for what the big public want. Whereas Jarmusch, makes these little art films, and they don't make a ton of money, but theyr'e also very beautiful." Francis Ford Coppola (director), Time, 21 May 2018

"In my lifetime, there have been fewer and fewer movies that challenge you. Movies are doing the work for us. They tell us when our heart is supposed to pound because of the music cue, or the light hits the tear glistening in the corner of an actor's eye just the right way." Ethan Hawke (actor, screenwriter, novelist, and director), Time, 20 August 2018.