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»Eunuchs in a Harem«
By Ronald Bergan

If we start from the viewpoint that any skill is an art, then criticism like football, juggling, bricklaying and bus driving is an art. However, the interrogative title of this discussion drops the indefinite article. It is not "Can Criticism be considered an art?" but "Can Criticism be considered Art?" i.e. on the level of literature, music, painting, theatre or films. If the latter, then the answer must be a resounding 'No'.

The Irish playwright Brendan Behan put it very well when he spoke of theatre critics as being "like eunuchs in a harem: They're there every night, they see it done every night, they see how it should be done every night, but they can't do it themselves." Also like eunuchs, they guard a treasure but cannot touch or change it.

Critics are reflexive. They exist only in relation to the art of others. They react, they don't act. Critics cannot exist without art, but art can exist without critics. Most critics are just as much consumers of art as film, theatre and concert audiences and readers. Theoretically, they are more perceptive, knowledgeable and sensitive than the average paying customer. But, as much as it pains me to say so, most film critics know less about the history, theory and technology of their art than the majority of classical music, painting or architectural critics.

Yes, there are some creative critics who can advance the understanding of cinema, but, as someone once said, "No-one ever built a statue to a critic", and nobody ever will. Craig Seligman's comparison between Susan Sontag and Pauline Kael is a specious one. Sontag, like Umberto Eco, is an essayist and social commentator, who has occasionally written about films. Kael was a trenchant and witty, though rather philistine, film reviewer. Seligman, who obviously has never read Serge Daney, says, "When I read Kael now, the pictures she wrote about seem like footnotes to her work." That is a huge claim. Kael, like most of us, if we're lucky, will be merely footnotes to the story of cinema.

Ronald Bergan
© FIPRESCI 2004

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