By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Authority-exuding quirkiness: Wells blurbs film snob-crib squibs
Jeff Wells is first on the block to blurb the February 2006 release of the David Kamp-Steven Daly crib, “The Film Snob*s Dictionary.” A few notes: “Film Snobs are mostly fringe types also, but a certain number can be found among journalists and critics,” Wells inscribes. “Naturally, I exclude myself. I have this delusional idea that I’m an anti-snob, man-of-the-people type. The truth is that I know my stuff and feel no empathy for lowbrow ignorance…”
Wells quotes the introduction: “The Film Snob fairly revels, in fact, in the notion that The Public Is Stupid and Ineducable, which is what sets him apart from the more benevolent Film Buff—the effervescent, Scorsese-style enthusiast who delights in introducing novitiates to The Bicycle Thief and Powell-Pressburger films.” Wells reminisces about early career insecurities, saying he found his way past them “partly out of a realization that certain elite critics lived on the planet Neptune. I came to realize that although they knew what they knew and had a brilliant way of saying it, their views weren’t any better than mine… although my respect for the elites and worshipping their prose all those years… had a cumulative effect.” Wells excerpts 8 entries from the slim tome, adding, “If it were my book I would have mentioned other Neptuners (B. Ruby Rich, Jim Hoberman, Ray Pride, Armond White, Robert Koehler, Emanuel Levy)—each of whom, it could be argued, are fascinating in their authority-exuding quirkiness. There’s certainly no slight in saying these people should have been included. Film Snobbery is an excusable neurotic outgrowth of being an extra-passionate Film Buff, and every Neptuner I’ve mentioned in this [graf] is a fine writer and respected scholar, so let’s not have any arched backs.” [The column lacks entry permalinks; search for “Snob Aesthetics” on this page.]