TABLE OF CONTENTS: List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Drawing the Boundaries of Art 1
The Central Argument 3
How Do We Know What Art Is? 4
American Film History 7
The Social Construction of Art 12
The Creation of Artistic Status: Opportunity, Institutions, and Ideology 14
Outline of the Chapters 18
CHAPTER 2: The Changing Opportunity Space: Developments in the Wider Social Context 21
The First World War and Urban-American Life: Two Disparate Influences on Film Attendance in Europe and the United States 23
Post-World War II Changes in the Size and Composition of American Film Audiences 32
Summary 51
CHAPTER 3: Change from Within: New Production and Consumption Practices 53
Film Festivals 54
Self-Promotion of Directors 59
Ties to Academia 66
United States, England, Germany, Italy, and France: Changes in the Industrial and Social History of Film 76
Purification through Venue: From Nickelodeons to Art Houses 88
Prestige Productions 92
The Ebb of Censorship and the Coming of Art 97
The Crisis of the 1960s Forced Hollywood down New Paths 105
Summary 108
CHAPTER 4: The Intellectualization of Film 111
Early U.S. Film Discourse 113
The Intellectualization of Film Reviews: 1925-1985 117
Film Reviews Approach Book Reviews: A Comparison with Literature 133
1960s Advertisements Incorporate Film Review 137
Foreign Film: A Pathway to High Art for Hollywood 148
Cultural Hierarchy, the Relevance of Critics, and the Status of Film as Art 155
Summary 159
CHAPTER 5: Mechanisms for Cultural Valuation 161
Why a Middlebrow Art? 163
Film Consumption as Cultural Capital 169
An Emphasis on Intellectualizing Discourse 171
Integration of Factors 173
The Study of Cultural Hierarchy 174
Notes 179
References 203
Index 217
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