Functions of Popular Culture

1. Functions of Popular Culture HUM/COMM 4034 spring 2009 Neal King

2. Auteurism as Blockbuster business Tuesday, February 10, 2009

3. Auteur marketing • In order to generate a cult blockbuster, a studio must employ a noted artist to bring class to a cartoonish story of boyish aggression. • The studio must then market the film as the work of that individual artist (the romantic auteur), using that cultural clout to generate more interest in the product. • The failure of such marketing can draw attention to the class distinction between the “high” culture of auteur and the “low” culture of the proprietary characters.

4. high and low in the marketing pitch • Hollywood feature film has long been known as low art, since its rejection by wealthy Victorian elites who favored dramatic theater and slide shows as more refined. • The vulgarity of displays of masculine strength in bouts of “happy violence” has motivated franchise filmmakers to add class, in order to draw audiences from beyond the fans of “pulp culture,” metal, and wrestling. • Auteurs of “serious drama” bring such class to projects and allow for cross-class marketing, which focuses on the director’s high degree of control. • But fans’ rejection of the trappings of high art (as “boring,” for instance) can make the cross-class orientation seem forced and draws attention both to the vulgarity of the source and the elitism of the auteur.

5. the auteur’s stamp • casting • style • story: complexity and structure

6. Functions of Popular Culture HUM/COMM 4034 spring 2009 Neal King