A scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971, Paramount. Film critic A.O. Scott speaks to Ithaca Journal's, Barbara Adams, about his upcoming lecture on the role of criticism in a changing culture. Some excerpts:
What's the earliest film you can recall watching critically, seriously, that hooked you?
I have vivid memories of going to see "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," but "Fantasia" is the movie that blew my mind. I realized how much a movie could do - it didn't even have to tell a story to grab hold of you...
Your talk at Ithaca College is on "criticism as a way of life."
...This talk is an opportunity to think out loud about what I do - to reflect a little about what criticism is and what it's for. A lot of people think that critics are snobs or are always negative - that our job is to trash things that people like. Or that critics are failed artists...
I'm interested in the changes in the print media and what's going on now with the Internet - the prominence of blogging and what that means for arts criticism...I'm not speaking about "why my job is great and everyone should listen to me," but about why criticism is an intelligent and lively form of discipline. About why having a critical perspective on the arts you care about is important and worthwhile and necessary. If criticism were to cease as an activity, a lot would go with it.
So what's a critic's main function?
To engage or begin a conversation about or inspired by some work of art, to provoke and stimulate thought and argument. Not just to say a work is good or bad, but in a coherent, lively way to share thoughts and impressions and create a virtual dialogue. What's intriguing about the Internet is that it's an actual dialogue.
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