sophistry

sophistry [ˈsɒfəstri] n.

1.) Specious but fallacious reasoning; employment of arguments which are intentionally deceptive. An instance of this; a sophism.
2.) The use or practice of specious reasoning as an art or dialectic exercise.
3.) Cunning, trickery, craft. Obs.
4.) The type of learning characteristic of the ancient Sophists; the profession of a Sophist.

Etymology: From sophist, adaptation of Latin sophista, sophistēs, adopted from Greek σοϕιστής, from σοϕίζεσθαι to become wise or learned. Hence also Spanish and Italian sofista, French sophiste.

"It is only thanks to cinema that workers in the most far-flung corners and the countryside can be familiarized with the productions of the world's best artists of stage and screen, with the best plays of the world repertoire, and this way can be introduced to cultured life, given a healthy, rational means of entertainment, and thus turned away from drunkeness and home-brew. And it goes without saying that film-plays should above all be realistic, precise, vivid, clear, and comprehensible by the masses. There is absolutely no need here for any intellectual sophistry, which would be utterly inappropriate" ("Novoe techenie v kinematographie", Dziga Vertov, 1923, translation from Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twenties, Yuri Tsivian, 2004).

(Autorretrato con traje de terciopelo, Frida Kahlo, 1926)