Richard Maltby

To Prevent the Prevalent Type of Book: Censorship and Adaptation in Hollywood, 1924-1934

As a literary study in stark realism and exposition of animal passions running wild, the novel has considerable merit. . As a screen proposition, An American Tragedy, with its shameless wallowings in the sex gutters, its debauchery and insistent dwelling on the baser sides of human nature, would seem impossible of conversion into anything resembling wholesome or appealing entertainment for the majority of picture followers.

Counting culture to death: an Australian perspective on culture counts and quality metrics

ABSTRACT Metrics-based approaches to understanding the value of culture imply homogeneity of artistic purpose, invite political manipulation and demand time, money and attention from cultural organisations without proven benefit. The system retailing as Culture Counts, a dashboard approach to quality measurement that emerged from Western Australia and is currently trialling in Australia, the US, the UK and Asia, serves to further abstract assessment processes. Cultural policy-makers across international domains need a more robust appreciation of the limits of metrics. Statistical data, well channelled, may provide useful ancillary information. But, where questions of value are concerned, it cannot replace critical judgment.

Response: Culture counts: “A step along the way” or a step back?

Crossick, G., & Kaszynska, P. (2017). Understanding the value of arts & culture: The AHRC Cultural Value Project. London: Arts & Humanities Research Council. Gilmore, A., Glow, H., & Johanson, K. (2017). Accounting for quality: arts evaluation, public value and the case of “Culture Counts”. Cultural Trends. doi:10.1080/09548963.2017.1382761 Holden, J. (2006). Cultural value and the crisis of legitimacy: Why culture needs a democratic mandate. London: Demos. Hutter, M., & Throsby, D. (Eds.). (2008). Beyond price: Value in economics, culture and the arts. New York: Cambridge University Press. McCarthy, K. M., Ondaatje, E. H., Zakaras, L., & Brooks, A. (2005). Gifts of the muse: Reframing the debate about the benefits of the arts. Los Angeles: The RAND Corporation. Phiddian, R., Meyrick, J., Barnett, T., & Maltby, R. (2017). Counting culture to death: an Australian perspective on culture counts and quality metrics, Cultural Trends, 26(2), 174–180. Throsby, D. (2010). The economics of cultural policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Digital Methods in New Cinema History

During the last decade a new direction has emerged in international research into cinema history, shifting focus away from analysing the content of films to considering their circulation and consumption, and examining the cinema as a site of social and cultural exchange. This body of work distinguishes itself from previous models of film history that have been predominantly constructed as histories of production, producers, authorship, and individual films most commonly understood as texts. This approach has now achieved critical mass and methodological maturity, and has developed a distinct identity as the ‘New Cinema History’.1 In this chapter we describe the emergence and concerns of New Cinema History and its relationship with digital methods and technologies through a discussion of several case studies and projects, focusing particularly on the ‘Mapping the Movies project, which has developed a geodatabase of Australian cinemas, covering the period from 1948 to 1971. The project’s data is used to examine the effects of the introduction of television on the Australian cinema industry, while its structure raises questions about the relationship between the microhistories of particular venues and the individuals attached to them, and larger-scale social or cultural history represented by the cinema industry’s globally organized supply chain.