J.P. Telotte
Related: cult films - film theory
Profile
J.P. Telotte is an American film scholar and film theorist.The Cult Film Experience: Beyond All Reason (1991) - J.P. Telotte
The Cult Film Experience: Beyond All Reason (1991) - J.P. Telotte
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I. Introduction: Mapping the Cult
II. The Classical Cult Film (Casablanca; Judy Garland)
III. The Midnight Movie (50s, Sci-Fi, Rocky Horror)
Selective Cult Film Bibliography
Cult and Commerce
Cult film practices developed two main forms. Cult 'classics' had once been popular Hollywood box-office successes aimed at a mainstream audience. Their elevation to cult status occurred when they became mere filler material on TV networks in the 1950s and acquired a devoted following. As a result, even films which had been box-office flops on theatrical release might find subsequent cult status through the small screen - particularly as the video sell-through market developed. Whether or not the films had originally been commercial or critical successes, their cult success found a different measure:
[T]he conjunction of a limited audience and a limited, even unconventionally measured success becomes significant. For it underscores how that 'love' aspect of the cult film functions: it works in a realm of difference - from normal film viewing practices and from marketing customs. [Telotte, 1991b: 7]
Mast (1986), however, had already problematised such arguments - pointing out that cult itself had already begun to be exploited as a potential market as early as the 1960s. --http://www.rhizomes.net/issue4/graham.html [Dec 2005]
Jean-Pierre Telotte, professor of literature, communication, and culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, is the author of Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir and Dreams of Darkness: Fantasy and the Films of Val Lewton and editor of The Cult Film Experience. --http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f95/telotte.html [Dec 2005]
See also: film experience