Torn from today's headlines.(EDITORIAL)(movie criticism)(Editorial)

Cineaste, September, 2009

Given film history's legacy, it would be difficult to argue that noble or idealistic subject matter invariably inspires great cinema. Profound political and social issues have frequently generated bad or mediocre films, while seemingly trivial concerns occasionally fuel masterpieces, thereby affirming that what strikes some viewers as frivolous can actually be--to invoke the words of a character in Max Ophuls's The Earrings of Madame de ...--"only superficially superficial."

Yet, despite acknowledging inevitable disparities between ambitious intentions and dubious esthetic achievements, Cineaste has always believed in a critical practice that can illuminate the world in which we live. This commitment of course assumes the deployment of keen judgments--a form...

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