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Author : Stanley Kauffmann
Number of Pages : 244
Publisher : PAJ Publications
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Product Description In this collection of his film writings, Kauffmann discusses films released after 1993, including films from major established directors, works from the iconoclastic world of independent cinema and the best of world cinema. In other essays, he muses on cinematic adaptations of Mozart's operas, explores changing public attitudes toward film as an art form, looks at the possibilities of accurately dramatizing the Holocaust and recalls important figures in film history. Customer reviews Mostly film reviews from the 1990s  by .. Dennis Littrell (SoCal)
It is with reluctance and of course some pleasure that I approach a review of a book by a film critic, being a film critic myself. I am not however anywhere near as knowledgeable about film as is Stanley Kaufmann nor am I as fancy with the wordsmithing. What I do well in a haphazard way is react to film as character and story with some reasonable awareness of the politics and the culture of the production. Professor Kaufmann on the other hand is deeply learned about all things cinema.
Regarding Film is a collection of reviews written mostly for The New Republic during the 1990s along with some other pieces from the Yale Review that he calls "Comments," and some movie book reviews. His acidic and sometimes pompous comments can be delightful and insightful, if one agrees with him, or dreary and dreadful and even tedious if one does not. A case in point is his critique of Oliver Stone's Nixon (1996) in which he chirps enthusiastically about Anthony Hopkins's performance while slyly denigrating what I think is one of Stone's finest works. Kaufmann writes, "...despite Stone's mercurial gifts, the film does not become an artistic whole; it remains an examination of characteristics." He adds, "What's missing is what Stone's best films have had: a subtext, a large theme evoked by the action on the screen." Without such a subtext, Kaufmann concludes, the film is "not much more than the series of events presented--thus, in any deep sense, purposeless." (p. 54)
It is good for a movie critic to read a somewhat dismissive review of a film that he the critic found outstanding, because now the critic knows how some readers of his reviews might feel when he disses one of their favs. But what I found annoying here is that in an addendum written a couple of weeks later, Kaufmann tells us that "Another visit to Nixon confirmed my admiration for it as filmmaking..." Well, what is it? I guess it's a "purposeless" exercise in admirable filmmaking! Personally I thought the examination of Nixon the man as opposed to Nixon the politician or Nixon the leader of the free world, was a fine subtext, if you will, with a clear purpose, allowing us to see how Nixon's personality shaped his governance.
More to my liking is Kaufmann's review of Adrian Lyne's Lolita (1998), in which he notes that Lyne's film is truer to the novel than the celebrated Kubrick film from 1962, but not necessarily a better film, and in which he does a nice job of critiquing Jeremy Irons's interesting but melancholy performance. I also liked his review of Shakespeare in Love (1998) and the peripheral knowledge he brought to the review. Also excellent, insightful and interesting to read is his review of The Truman Show (1998). Most of the reviews are in fact interesting to read regardless of how one might feel about his proclivities or analyses.
The most striking disagreement I have with Kaufmann concerns his review of Stanley Kubrick's last film Eyes Wide Shut (1999). I don't think Kaufmann understood the film and I was offended by the eagerness with which he disparages the work of a great artist. Kaufmann even gives us, in a long preamble to the actual review, the apparent reasons for his inability to appreciate what Kubrick was trying to do in his later years. Kaufmann implies simultaneously that he had a falling out with Kubrick over (1) Kaufmann's negative reviews of Kubrick's later films, and/or (2) because Kubrick disappointed Kaufmann on two occasions by not agreeing to some professional invitation that Kaufmann had extended. I find it surprising that Kaufmann could be so blatantly transparent, but maybe I should appreciate his candor.
I was also not pleased with his review of American Beauty (1999). I don't think he understood this film either. He calls it a "supposedly realistic film" (p. 149), but it is not. It is a satire, almost a burlesque, and a very funny one at that. However if a viewer thinks (as did many viewers from middle America who also did not like the film) that it is some kind of attempted realism, then perhaps none of it is very funny.
Curiously this book does not list the films reviewed in a table of contents. The titles appear in an index, but the reader is forced to flip through the book to see which titles are actually reviewed and which are merely mentioned.
Kaufmann's erudition is not to be questioned. His scholar's knowledge of film is admirable and helps to make his reviews very much worthwhile; but his strength as a film critic may be in his understanding and appreciation of actors. I may find fault with his interpretation of a film or his appreciation of a director's artistry, but seldom do I differ with his discernment about the skill and the effort of the actors. As Shakespeare was an actor's writer, Kaufmann is an actor's critic--well, a good actor's critic. He can be quite short with what he sees as a sub par performance.
This charming man by .. pnotley@hotmail.com (Edmonton, Alberta Canada)
For more than four decades Stanley Kauffmann has been the film critic for the New Republic. Now after three decades of the reign of Martin Peretz over that journal he is that rarest of creatures, a truly non-ideological critic. He is consistently sensible and sane, and always worthy to be read. For those who think that Roger Ebert is too vulnerable to the slick products of Hollywood, or that the late Pauline Kael was too voluble and dogmatic, Kauffmann is always available as an alternative. This collection of reviews covers 1993-2000 and is somewhat more selective than his previous books. There is praise of Abbas Kiarostami and much enthusiasm for Emma Thompson. Michelangelo Antonioni is given a final review, there is a touching obituary for Marcello Mastroianni, and another touching, and very brief, one for James Stewart. Neil LaBute and Todd Solondz are praised for their ruthlessly unsentimental approach. Pulp Fiction is treated somewhat warrily. Forrest Gump goes completely unmentioned. Fargo and All About my Mother get very guarded praise. Eyes Wide Shut and The End of the Affair are subjected to special criticism. Among foreign films Kauffmann singles out for praise Ken Loach, Gianni Amelio, Zhang Yimou, Daniel Bergman's film of his father Ingmar's autobiography, and Erick Zonca. I find myself disagreeing more with Kauffmann in this collection. I myself do not think that Amistad is a better film than Kundun. Kundun may be excellent, it may be overly respectful, but in my view Amistad is little more than competent and worthy. It strikes me as odd that in American Beauty Kauffmann should praise Annette Bening's acting, since the script caricatures her character as a spiteful gargoyle. (Still, Kauffmann has the movie right: "at the finish of the picture, we're left feeling that Ball has had a trial run with them: now he needs to go back and really use them to some enlightening and organically whole purpose.") At one point in his praise of Schindler's List, he notes the scene of a child hiding in a latrine and says it is mememorable in the same way as the famous photograph of a child being marched away from the Warsaw ghetto. I would argue that Spielberg's shot cannot be memorable as the original photo, since it is obviously been too clearly designed to resemble it. Another weakness of the collection is that there are fewer dismissive reviews. His criticism is actually one of his strengths, as one sees in the pans he wrote last year of Moulin Rouge and The Man Who Wasn't There. Nevertheless, Kauffmann is an intelligent and literate man, and he is properly pessimistic about the future of film, as the students he tought earlier in the last decade are too impatient and spoiled to recognize the virtues of silent movies, or black and white movies or subtitled ones. They often have no sense of history, either of the movies as an art form or of the wider society. Kauffmann, who quotes Shaw and Graham Greene several times to good effect, is depressed but not desponsdent. And so one should look at, among other things, a fine essay on adapting Mozart to the screen, a surprisingly undeferrential review of Touch of Evil, and a review of the European background and soil of Billy Wilder.
Thoughtful essays on film and more  by .. Eileen Galen (USA)
This collection of six years' (1993-98) of thoughtful and passionate criticism (movie reviews and film theory, and related book reviews) is a delight, and a wonderful primer - on thinking and writing about movies. An elegant and informative Foreword by Michael Wood provides biographical material on Stanley Kauffmann, a lifelong theater and film critic, film and theater professor, and essayist. Kauffmann sent his first (unsolicited) film review to The New Republic in 1958, and has been their film critic since then. Kauffmann : "The mere physical act of film-going is part of the kinesis of my life- the getting up and going out and the feeling of coming home, which is a somewhat different homecoming feeling from anything else except the theater...To have my life unpunctuated by the physical act of film going is almost like walking with a limp, out of my natural rhythm." This terrific collection has been divided into a few sections: "Reviews," "Reviewings," "Comment," and "Books." The reviews are written deceptively simply, one of Kauffmann's many subtle abilities. He draws you into his view of a film and its possibilities (realized or not) with gentleness and assuredness. He is never noisy, flippant, or condescending. When he objects to something (and he does, often) he lays it out clearly - and humanely. It's a pleasure. Kauffmann can be funny, too, and has an innate sense of what is worth re-telling. Kauffmann's wonderful review of Kevin Brownlow's biography of director David Lean starts off: "David Lean began life as a dunce. His kindergarten teacher told his mother that she was afraid he would never be able to read and write. He managed to disprove that prediction, buy otherwise there was little sparkle." Of course Lean, raised a Quaker in London, discovered movies at age 13, and everything changed. Kauffmann eagerly promotes his favorites (Emma Thompson is one, he has much respect for Warren Beatty, and pays close attention to smaller, unsung filmmakers) and is painstakingly fair to actors and filmmakers -in consistently thoughtful uses of his pulpit. He begins his review of a small Iranian film, "Through the Olive Trees," by expressing his thanks to the friend who prompted him to first have a look at its director's work, and then he thanks the director himself. Kauffmann is a man who loves the medium, and reveres its potential to provide hope and transformation - along with a lot of fun. These great pieces are definitely worth reading and rereading.
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Author : James Agee
Number of Pages : 496
Release Date : 2000-03-07
Publisher : Modern Library
List Price : $23.00
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Product Description "In my opinion, [Agee's] column is the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today."--W. H. Auden James Agee was passionately involved with the movies throughout his life. A master of both fiction and nonfiction, he wrote about film in clean, smart prose as the reviewer for Time magazine and as a columnist for The Nation. Agee was particularly perceptive about the work of his friend John Huston and recognized the artistic merit of certain B films such as The Curse of the Cat People and other movies produced by Val Lewton. Customer reviews The Master Writes His Love by .. Michael Frega (Bronx, New York United States)
James Agee was a great writer (his book about the Dust Bowl is a classic). He continued to be a brilliant writer in his film reviews and his scripts. Thank you, Modern Library, for returning these collections of writing to us. They are wonderful to read and they make you think!
He created serious film criticism by .. Jerry Engelbach (Brooklyn, NY)
I still have my first edition copy of Agee on Film.
A production on the stage is seen once and then is gone forever. Curiously, despite the fact that a film can be viewed repeatedly, once upon a time revivals were rare, and most audiences saw a film once, talked about it, then forgot about it.
Even the film studios only half-heartedly treated their products as permanent, allowing many of them to deteriorate irretrievably and others nearly so (eventually giving rise to an entire industry devoted to film restoration).
Films were given a new life with the advent of television. Growing up on old movies on the tube in the 1950s, I found that repeated viewing of the same film could be a rich experience, and nothing enhanced this experience more than the appearance in the early 1960s of Agee on Film.
Agee took film seriously as a cultural experience, a molder of public opinion, a tool that might be useful or dangerous. Just how much he differs from mainstream reviewers who regarded the movies primarily as entertainment can be seen in the two different sets of reviews in this book.
His reviews in the liberal The Nation are extended analyses of the films and the sensibilities of the filmmakers, withering critiques of the limitations of the studio system, and manifestos on how good films could have been made better. Agee interpolates in his reviews his opinions about everything: The War (WWII, of course), politics, race, education, religion, psychology, philosophy ... the list goes on.
In contrast, his reviews for Time, constrained by that magazine's conservatism, are truncated and absent the depth and bite that distinguishes Agee from all other critics. His beautiful use of language keeps him afloat, but were it not for The Nation, I doubt Agee would have the reputation of Greatest Film Critic of All Time.
Agee on Film was originally in two volumes. The first was the current book. The second was a collection of Agee's own screenplays, including the classic The Night of the Hunter; Noa Noa, a fascinating teleplay about Gaugin (very different from Maughams' The Moon and Sixpence); and his magnificent adaptation of the The African Queen. Thus, he was able, unlike most critics, and with admirable results, to put his pen where his critique was.
James Agee almost single-handedly popularized the appreciation of film as an art form. The writing in this book is how he did it.
James Agee, an inspiring critic by .. Steven Bailey (Jacksonville Beach, FL USA)
Ever wonder what causes a movie reviewer to *become* a movie reviewer? When I was a ten-year-old kid just getting into classic movie comedies, I went to the library and checked out the book AGEE ON FILM solely because it had references to Charlie Chaplin and W.C. Fields. Thus was my introduction to high-quality film criticism. James Agee made his reputation writing sterling movie reviews for Time and The Nation magazines in the 1940's. Among other glories, he wrote a much-heralded essay titled "Comedy's Greatest Era" that helped to bring silent-comedy icons (most notably Harry Langdon) out of mothballs and caused them to be re-viewed and discussed seriously among film historians. He later went on to work on the screenplays of a couple of gems titled The African Queen and Night of the Hunter. Unfortunately, many people who regard the critics Pauline Kael and Stanley Kauffmann have either forgotten Agee's work entirely or have assigned his own work to mothballs. But among the faithful are film director Martin Scorsese, who serves as editor of the "Modern Library: The Movies" series of film books. The series has recently reissued the AGEE ON FILM book, and re-reading Agee's work (or reading it for the first time, if you're lucky enough) proves that film criticism can make for reading material as compelling as any fictional novel. Agee passes the acid test for any film critic: Even if you don't agree with him, his writing is so lively that you can't help enjoying it. His work ranges from three separate columns (three weeks' worth, in print terms) to Chaplin's much-maligned (at the time) MONSIEUR VERDOUX, to the most concise, funniest review ever: Reviewing a musical potboiler titled YOU WERE MEANT FOR ME, Agee replied in four simple words, "That's what *you* think." If you want to see what high-caliber movie criticism meant in the pre-Siskel & Ebert days, engross yourself in this sprawling book. It'll make you appreciate the decades before every newspaper, newsletter, and Internet site had its own minor-league deconstructionist of Hollywood blockbusters.
Resurrected Film Study by .. Thomas Stamper (Orlando, FL)
James Agee was short for this world, having died in his mid 40s. In that span of time he wrote a famous book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and a couple of classic screenplays, AFRICAN QUEEN and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. This collection of magazine film reviews and essays is in many ways the leftover part of his work, and yet it feels like enough to make a reputation on. His reviews span just one decade, the 1940s. Many of them tackle foreign films that may be unavailable for all I know. Interesting to me is that he spends three weeks discussing Chaplin's MONSIEUR VERDOUX, which is a most unusual movie and mostly forgotten today. This might be because he saw it as his only chance to write a poignant piece on the greatest living film artist, or it may be because he identified with the plight of mankind theme that Chaplin was reaching for. You can pick another reason, yourself, but it was a bold decision, because most critics panned the film (according to him) and most readers probably couldn't even see the movie in their small towns. It was as if he knew he would be writing for posterity. Like all critics, he cultivated his darlings. He saw much in the work of John Huston and was very skillful in his sizing up of TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE. I was impressed that he predicted the all-time classic nature of the film, but also understood the studio system gimmicks that took away from the genius. You don't have to be literary minded like W. H. Auden to enjoy this book. You'll like it, if you like movies.
More than we ever deserved . . . by .. Dan Harper (Denver, Colorado)
James Agee wrote film criticism in America at a time when the American film industry hardly deserved his attention. His celebrations of silent film comedy, of Preston Sturges, of John Huston [for whom he later wrote the script for The African Queen], and of the handful of worthy foreign films that he managed to see are what make this volume worth reading. Besides Agee's beautiful prose and above all his compassion. Interestingly, Agee was a fan of Frank Capra's comedies (It Happened One Night) and bemoaned the director's decent into serious social films (Mr Smith Goes To Washington, Meet John Doe). His negative review of It's a Wonderful Life, which has never been in print since it appeared in 1946, reveals the extent to which Agee was perhaps too far ahead of his time, and even of ours.
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Author : Stanley Kauffmann
Number of Pages : 437
Publisher : Greenwood Press
Used Price : $4.46 |
Customer reviews The greatest of film critics. by .. A. E. Kaiser (Eugene, Oregon United States)
Stanley Kauffmann was born in 1916 and worked at various jobs (actor, director, novelist) before sending in an unsolicited review to The New Republic in 1958. They accepted it, and soon Kauffmann was TNR's full-time film critic. Except for short stints as drama critic for The New York Times and as a book reviewer for TNR (during which Pauline Kael served as the magazine's film critic), Kauffmann has retained his position ever since. Today, at nearly 86-years-old, Kauffmann continues to write literate, penetrating, lucid essays for TNR. He is, quite simply, the greatest critic the world of cinema has produced to date. "A World on Film" was Kauffmann's first collection of film criticism. Consisting of reviews and essays written between 1958 and 1965, it amply demonstrates the insight, passion and probity of Kauffmann's approach to film. It also displays his extraordinary talents as a writer. Each review is a finely-crafted work in itself. While Pauline Kael tended to ramble (and ramble) in her reviews, departing far from the subject at hand in order to write about herself, Kauffmann is focused and concise, saying in a few words what most critics say in several paragraphs. His assessments are fair and evenhanded; Roger Ebert once aptly described Kauffmann as the "sanest of critics." In short, "A World on Film" is a fine introduction to Kauffmann, film criticism and cinema circa 1958-1965. It also makes for very pleasurable reading in itself.
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Author : Richard, Editor Corlis
Publisher : The Film Society Of Lincoln Center. NY. Feb. 1983. Paper
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Author : Ramon Carmona
Edition : 6
Number of Pages : 323
Publisher : Catedra
List Price : $25.95
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Related Search : e imagen , como se , comment film
Format : HTML
Author : Chris Chang
Number of Pages : 2
Release Date : 2005-04-19
Publisher : Film Society of Lincoln Center
List Price : $5.95
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Product Description This digital document is an article from Film Comment, published by Film Society of Lincoln Center on November 1, 2002. The length of the article is 393 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Citation DetailsTitle: The Pianist. Author: Chris Chang Publication: Film Comment (Magazine/Journal) Date: November 1, 2002 Publisher: Film Society of Lincoln Center Volume: 38 Issue: 6 Page: 77(1) Distributed by Thompson Gale Related Search : pianist article , comment , from film
Format : HTML
Author : Gavin Smith
Number of Pages : 2
Release Date : 2006-07-14
Publisher : Film Society of Lincoln Center
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Product Description This digital document is an article from Film Comment, published by Film Society of Lincoln Center on November 1, 2003. The length of the article is 589 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Citation DetailsTitle: Unfamiliar haunts.(Festivals: Toronto)(L'Histoire de Marie et Julien)(The Grudge)(Movie Review) Author: Gavin Smith Publication: Film Comment (Magazine/Journal) Date: November 1, 2003 Publisher: Film Society of Lincoln Center Volume: 39 Issue: 6 Page: 69(1) Article Type: Movie Review Distributed by Thomson Gale Related Search : et julien , l histoire , from film |
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