{"id":1434,"date":"2007-07-31T23:13:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-31T23:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/have-we-lost-the-appetite-for-difficulty\/"},"modified":"2007-07-31T23:13:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-31T23:13:00","slug":"have-we-lost-the-appetite-for-difficulty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/have-we-lost-the-appetite-for-difficulty.html","title":{"rendered":"Have we lost the “appetite for difficulty”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
A.O. Scott<\/a> of the New York Times<\/i> comments on the passing of Bergman and Antonioni<\/a>, and the era they represented:<\/span><\/p>\n

There was, among certain filmgoers in the 1960s, an appetite for difficulty, a conviction that symbolic obscurity and psychological alienation were authentic responses to the state of the world. More than that, the idea that a difficult work had special value \u2014 that being challenged was a distinct form of pleasure \u2014 enjoyed a prestige, at the time, that is almost unimaginable today. We would rather be teased than troubled, and the measure of artistic sophistication is cleverness rather than seriousness.<\/p>\n

Given all that, it may be hard for someone who wasn\u2019t there \u2014 who never knew a film culture in which \u201cLa Notte\u201d didn\u2019t already exist \u2014 to quite appreciate the heroic status conferred on Mr. Antonioni and Mr. Bergman 40 years ago. I don\u2019t believe that the art of filmmaking has necessarily declined since then (I\u2019d quit my job if I did), but it seems clear the cultural climate that made it possible to hail filmmakers as supreme artists has vanished for good. All that\u2019s left are the films.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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A.O. Scott of the New York Times comments on the passing of Bergman and Antonioni, and the era they represented: There was, among certain filmgoers in the 1960s, an appetite for difficulty, a conviction that symbolic obscurity and psychological alienation were authentic responses to the state of the world. More than that, the idea that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHave we lost the "appetite for difficulty"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A.O. 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