[Nick Zwar]

I have more than once been called a “reductionist”, so who knows, maybe I am. (It’s true that I need to get to the smallest building blocks and core assumptions first, because the foundation is what enables deeper discussions in the first place.)

However, I’d say this: to work on a surface level at all, it has to work on deeper levels. Because while the surface is what shines, without layered foundation, surface is just like thin coat of paint that flakes off at the slightest scratch.

I think one of the greatest directors ever was William Wyler, who was at least skeptical of the “auteur” notion. He said once: “I could hardly call myself an auteur – although I’m one of the few American directors who can pronounce the word correctly”. Yet he was a deeply involved and serious filmmaker, striving to do the best possible movie he could make. Wyler was also critical of too many people in the movies for the wrong reason: “The trouble with Hollywood is that too many of the top people responsible for pictures are too comfortable and don’t give a damn about what goes up on the screen so long as it gets by at the box office. How can you expect people with that kind of attitude to make the kind of great pictures that the world will want to see?”
In the end, Wyler was a “reductionist” who believed that a good film needs a good script and good actors and that a director should put himself in the service of these things. And he did some great movies, not doubt.

Wyler was a highly accomplished filmmaker who believed getting himself “out of the picture” (figuratively), by approaching each movie and genre on its own terms. So an artist who put himself at the service of art.
There is a type of art “connoisseur” (as they might call themselves) that is at the exact opposite end of the spectrum. They use the art to elevate themselves and put themselves up there. You’ll find them among the audience of all kinds of art (paintings, literature, music, movies), and you recognize them almost as soon as you talk to them. You quickly perceive that they don’t talk so much about the movies themselves, but their “observations” about a movie serve primarily to display their own (implied to be refined and superior) tastes and discriminating observations. Unlike Wyler, who made movies by getting himself out of the way, they discuss movies to put themselves in the way. We’ve probably all met these kinds of people at various times in our life. Sometimes, I find it fun to poke a needle in their bubble. Most of the time I have other interests these days though. 🙂