Alignment does matter

Mapping of a Medium in Decline

Types of Cinephilia

6 Cinephage Cinephilia

Obscurantist-auteurist leaning, yet open to any approach. Refusal to pre-order cinema according to other than highly personal criteria. Main goal generalized knowledge of everything about cinema, implicit bias for periphery rather than center. Often subscribes to "Maverick" narratives, yet "individual expression" just one entryway into films among many. Context (mode of production, sociological) often takes center stage. Cinephilia itself as a practice of mapping. Polemical edge targeting middlebrow favorites present though not a main objective.

 

Exists at the periphery of institutions. Can neither move towards the center nor disentangle completely, because dependend on (yet also providing) resources.

Olaf Möller probably only true practitioner. Less radical examples (this is a mapping of types of cinephilia, not of cinephiles) among enthusiasts, journalists and academia. Political alignment does matter and is probably almost always to the left.

Grew out of rats of the cinematheque type of cinephilia.

Writing tends to be free-form and individualistic. Strength: multi-directional approach, surprising insights from off-beat angles. Limiations: Sometimes tendency to get "lost in context", not necessarily all that interested in inner workings of formalist aesthetics.