Thanks for the insight. I’ll confess it was difficult to summarize Wall’s POV regarding Adorno — Wall required an entire book to examine and describe the nuance he studied, and I had just 400 words. Sometimes in our interviews, Wall (by his own admission) argued against himself.

But if it can be summarized, it might be that, like Adorno, Wall believes commercialism can undercut art. However, commercialism does not necessarily preclude that film can be art. It’s an argument I’ve heard from artists in several media: the conflict and compromise between purity of message and accessibility of message.

I hesitate to link Nosferatu to Nazism, although I think it’s fair to link it to images and stereotypes of European anti-Semitism. Nosferatu was released in 1922, three years after the founding of the Nazi party but two years before the publication of Mein Kampf and the ensuing rise of Nazism. It’s a reference Wall made and he isn’t alone in making the link (Here’s are two examples: http://tinyurl.com/nx6jktb and http://tinyurl.com/met8bk4).

While I hesitate to put words into Wall’s mouth regarding this (I spoke to him more than a year ago), I’ll suggest Nosferatu is a valid example of what Wall is studying because film is a medium that often relies, for good or ill, on stereotype, archetype and generalization.

But please check out Dr. Wall’s book. It was published after our interviews, but is now available on Amazon.

Thanks again.

Todd