JonathanRosenbaum.com

On Books and Literary Matters (an index of sorts)

Here is a chronological list of all (or almost all) of the book reviews and longer pieces on literary subjects found on this web site (capsule reviews of films are omitted):

Review of THE CRYING OF LOT 49 (Bard Observer, May 1966)

“I Missed It at the Movies: Objections to ‘Raising KANE’” (Film Comment, Spring 1972)

Review of JEAN RENOIR: THE WORLD OF HIS FILMS (Film Comment, January-February 1973)

Review of GRAVITY’S RAINBOW (Village Voice, March 1973)

“Raymond Durgnat” (Film Comment, May-June 1973)

Review of Dwight Macdonald’s DISCRIMINATIONS (Village Voice, Oct. 1974)

Review of Gore Vidal’s MYRON (Village Voice, Nov. 1974)

Review of Noel Burch’s THEORY OF FILM PRACTICE (Sight and Sound, Winter 1974/75)

On Jean Renoir [book review] (Film Comment, May-June 1976)

“Film Writing Degree Zero: The Marketplace and the University” (Sight and Sound, Autumn 1977)

Review of Noel Burch’s TO THE DISTANT OBSERVER (American Film, July-August 1979)

Review of Graham Greene’s DR. FISCHER OF GENEVA (Soho News, May 1980)

“Dr. Percy to the Rescue” [on Walker Percy’s THE SECOND COMING] (Soho News, July 1980]

“A Fine Madness” [The Legacy of Mad Comics] (Soho News, July 1980)

“Reactionary Humor and Southern Comfort” [Review of A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES] (Soho News, August 1980)

“Barthes of My Heart” [review of Roland Barthes’ NEW CRITICAL ESSAYS] (Soho News, September 1980)

“Under the Sign of Sontag” [review of UNDER THE SIGN OF SATURN] (Soho News, November 1980)

“Cliff Notes from Mt. Olympus” [review of Nabokov’s LECTURES ON LITERATURE] (Soho News, November 1980)

“McCarthy’s Law” [review of IDEAS AND THE NOVEL] (Soho News, February 1981)

“Ad Hominem” [review of DIXIANA MOON] (Soho News, March 1981)

Review of MOVING PLACES by “Nancy Rothstein” (Film Comment, May-June 1981)

Review of Vito Russo’s THE CELLULOID CLOSET (Soho News, August 1981)

“Reading about Looking and Looking at Reading” [review of CAMERA LUCIDA and IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER] (Soho News, August 18, 1981)

“Excremental Visionary” [review of John Waters’ SHOCK VALUE] (Soho News, September 1981)

“Czar Babies” [Review of Nabokov’s LECTURES ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE] (Soho News, November 1981)

David Bordwell on Dreyer (a book review) (Film Comment, November-December 1981)

“The Way We Were” [book reviews] (American Film, April 1982)

Review of Martin Gardner’s SCIENCE: GOOD, BAD AND BOGUS (Village Voice, June 1, 1982)

Four Books on The Hollywood Musical (Film Quarterly, Summer 1982)

On William Pechter (Film Comment, July-August 1982)

“Barthes & Film: 12 Suggestions” (Sight and Sound, Winter 1982/83)

Review of JERRY LEWIS IN PERSON (Village Voice, January 25, 1983)

Review of John Belton’s CINEMA STYLISTS (Film Quarterly, Summer 1984)

“Gee, Dad, It’s a Wurlitzer” [Review of Rudy Wurlitzer’s SLOW FADE] (Los Angeles Reader, December 1984)

“Olaf Stapledon: The Father of Modern Science Fiction” (High Times, August 1985)

Reading: The (Remote) Glass House That Jerry Built (previously unpublished; written in July 1988)

“Pynchon’s Prayer” (review of VINELAND) (Chicago Reader, March 9, 1990)

“The Wild One” (review of Richard Schickel’s Brando biography), Newsday, July 1991

“They Drive By Night: The Criticism of Manny Farber” (Placing Movies: The Practice of Film Criticism, 1995; written in 1993)

Review of THE EARLY FILM CRITICISM OF FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT (Cineaste, Spring 1993)

Review of James Naremore’s THE FILMS OF VINCENTE MINNELLI (Cineaste, Fall 1995)

Review of Michel Chion’s AUDIO-VISION: SOUND ON SCREEN (Cineaste, Winter 1995)

Review of MASON & DIXON (In These Times, July 1997)

“Samuel Fuller: The Words of an Innocent Warrior” (Written By 2, no. 3, March 1998)

Review of SPEAKING ABOUT GODARD & NEGATIVE SPACE (Cineaste, Fall 1998)

“The Countercultural Histories of Rudy Wurlitzer” (Written By 3, no. 8, November 1998)

“Daney in English: A Letter to Trafic” (Trafic no. 37, Spring 2001)

“The American Cinema Revisited” (on Andrew Sarris) (Cinema Scope, Winter 2001)

Review of Peter Wollen’s PARIS HOLLYWOOD (Cineaste, Fall 2003)

Review of Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision (previously unpublished; written for the Guardian in June 2004)

Review of Colin MacCabe’s Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy (Cineaste, Summer 2004)

“Radical Humanism and the Coexistence of Film and Poetry in The House is Black” (Facets Video DVD liner notes, 2005)

Review of Simon Callow’s ORSON WELLES, VOLUME 2: HELLO AMERICANS (Cineaste, Fall 2006)

Review of Icons of Grief: Val Lewton’s Home Front Pictures (Stop Smiling, 2006)

Review of Pynchon’s AGAINST THE DAY (Chicago Reader, December 1, 2006)

Review of WALT DISNEY: THE TRIUMPH OF THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION (Cineaste, Summer 2007)

Review of Richard Brody’s Godard biography (Village Voice, May 13, 2008)

Ernest Borneman (5/16/08)

Recommended Reading: Naomi Klein (5/20/08)

Two late books by William Styron (5/21/08)

Shklovsky’s LITERATURE AND CINEMATOGRAPHY (5/25/08)

Alain Resnais/Harry Dickson (5/26)

Forugh Farrokhzad poems (5/29/08)

Mark Rappaport book (in French) (6/11/08)

Books on Charles Fort and Mayakovsky (8/5/08)

Gilbert Adair’s AND THEN THERE WAS NO ONE (1/4/09)

NATIVE SON (novel and play) (2/10/09)

Barack Obama’s DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE (2/17/09) FRANKLY, MY DEAR: GONE WITH THE WIND REVISITED (3/3/09) Review of BRITTON ON FILM (Film Comment, March-April 2009) Dave Hickey’s THE INVISIBLE DRAGON (3/18/09) FLANNERY: A LIFE OF FLANNERY O’CONNOR (3/20/09) Fredric Brown, Madness, and CRACK-UP (3/22/09) J. Hoberman in French and in English (3/31/09) On Luc Moullet books and DVD (5/3/09) What is Cinema? (and, if you know what that is, what is film study?) (on new translation of Bazin) (5/4/09) Thornton Wilder’s HEAVEN’S MY DESTINATION (5/20/09) On Luc Moullet books and DVD (5/3/09) What is Cinema? (and, if you know what that is, what is film study?) (on new translation of Bazin) (5/4/09) Books by Alfred Leslie (5/30/09) Review of Pynchon’s INHERENT VICE (Slate, August 3, 2009) VINCENTE MINNELLI: THE ART OF ENTERTAINMENT (8/19/09) Eric Hobsbawm on Americn Empire (9/17/09) Morris Dickstein’s DANCING IN THE DARK (9/28/09) A dialogue about death by Milan Kundera (10/4/09) Recommended Reading: Two Books by and about Lindsay Anderson (10/13/09) “The First Cordelia” [review of IN MY FATHER’S SHADOW: A DAUGHTER REMEMBERS ORSON WELLES] (Moving Image Source, November 13, 2009) J.D. Salinger (1919-2010): A Minor Memoir (1/29/10) A Forthcoming Novel by Robin Wood (4/20/10)

Review of Chris Fujiwara’s JERRY LEWIS (Cineaste, Spring 2010)

Review of Tony Pipolo’s ROBERT BRESSON (Cineaste, Summer 2010)

Two French Godard Books: Informational Obstacles (and Teasers) (7/7/10) Review of ANOTHER FINE MESS: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN FILM COMEDY (Film Comment, November-December 2010)

What I’m Reading (August 2010) (11/9/10)

The Poetry (and the Sociology) of Surreal Juxtaposition (11/18/10)

Recommended Reading: n + 1, Fall 2010 (11/24/10)

THE SIRENS OF TITAN etc. (2/12/11)

A Double Standard at the Library of America? (3/25/11)

Albert Brooks, Woody Allen, and Money (5/21/11)

LA SAGA: CINÉASTES, DE NOTRE TEMPS: UNE HISTOIRE DU CINÉMA EN 100 FILMS (8/13/11)

On Robin Wood’s TRAMMEL UP THE CONSEQUENCE (8/17/11)

Recommended: THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES by Sarah Kozloff (9/5/11)

“Globalized” Kael in THE AGE OF MOVIES (11/5/11)

Straub-Huillet’s ÉCRITS and a Few Comparable Insights (3/21/12)

Recommended Reading: CAPRICCI 2012 & Leo Robson on Wes Anderson (6/5/12)

Published on 15 Jun 2012 in Notes, by jrosenbaum

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Index of long reviews from the Chicago Reader, by film (or book) title or subject

Note: items followed by “(i)” have been reformatted and are also illustrated. (There are a few long reviews that appear on this site twice, once with illustrations and once without, although I’ve started to delete the non-illustrated duplications whenever I spot them.) For some strange reason, one of my long reviews, of both Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace and Trekkies, which appeared in the May 21, 1999 issue of the Chicago Reader under the title “Summer Camp,” didn’t make it onto either the Reader’s web site or my own until I recently copied it here. (I’ve also added another text missing from both sites, from the same year, on the four-hour Greed, which I already had in digital form because it was reprinted in my collection Essential Cinema.) Still missing from both sites is my brief ten best piece (actually, 20 best) for 2006, which appeared at some point in December 2006 or January 2007. If readers spot any errors here, I would welcome hearing about them, at jonathanrosenbaum at earthlink dot net.

***

Abigail’s Party, 1/10/92 (i)

The Abyss, 8/11/89 (i)

The Accidental Tourist, 1/13/89 (i)

The Accompanist, 1/28/94 (i)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, 3/4/94 (i)

The Actor, 4/11/97 (i)

An Actor’s Revenge, 6/3/88 (i)

The Adopted Son, 4/2/99 (i)

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 3/17/89 (i)

The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl in 3-D, 6/10/05 (i)

Aerograd, 6/7/02 (i)

The Affair of the Necklace, 12/21/01 (i)

After the Sunset, 11/18/04 (i)

Against the Day (novel), 12/1/06 (i)

The Age of Innocence, 9/17/93 (i)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, 7/13/01 (i)

Un air de famille, 10/2/98 (i)

Films by Chantal Akerman, 1/26/90 (i)

Alfie (Shyer), 11/18/04 (i)

Ali, 12/21/01 (i)

All the Little Animals, 9/3/99 (i)

Almanac of Fall, 5/23/90 (i) & 5/10/96 (i)

Almost Famous, 9/22/00 (i)

Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy, 2/28/00 (i)

Alone on the Pacific, 6/3/88 (i)

Amen., 3/14/03 (i)

American Beauty, 9/24/99 (i)

American Film Institute’s List of 100 Best American Films, 6/26/98 (i)

American History X, 11/16/98 (i)

America’s Sweethearts, 7/20/01 (i)

Anatomy of a Murder, 1/17/95 (i)

Anatomy of a Relationship, 2/19/88 (i) & 3/31/06 (i)

And Life Goes On (Life and Nothing More), 10/23/92 (i)

Angèle, 3/3/95 (i)

The Anniversary Party, 6/22/01 (i)

Films by Michelangelo Antonioni, 4/9/93 (i)

Anything Else, 9/26/03 (i)

Apartment Zero, 11/17/89 (i)

Apocalypse Now Redux, 8/17/01 (i)

The Apostle, 1/30/98 (i)

Arabian Knight, 9/8/95 (i)

Archangel, 3/1/91 (i)

The Argyle Secrets, 1/15/92 (i)

Army of Shadows, 5/26/06 (i)

Martin Arnold films, 2/18/00 (i)

Arsenal, 6/7/02 (i)

Art of Music Video, 2/23/90 (i)

Art School Confidential, 5/12/06 (i)

As Good as it Gets, 12/26/97 (i)

Ashes of Time, 3/10/95 (i)

Ask the Dust, 3/17/06 (i)

Assault of the Killer Bimbos, 9/16/88 (i)

Assault on Precinct 13 (Richet), 1/21/05 (i)

The Asthenic Syndrome, 9/13/96 (i) & 5/6/05 (i)

The Astronaut Farmer, 2/22/07 (i)

As You See, 2/14/92 (i)

L’Atalante, 3/29/91 (i)

Autumn Tale, 8/20/99 (i)

Une Aventure de Billy le Kid aka A Girl is a Gun, 3/31/06 (i)

The Aviator, 12/24/04 (i)

L’avventura, 4/9/93 (i)

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, 3/20/98 (i)

Babette’s Feast, 5/20/88 (i)

Bamako, 3/9/07 (i)

Band of Outsiders, 12/7/01 (i)

Films by Boris Barnet, 2/6/04 (i)

Bartleby, 5/24/02 (i)

Barton Fink, 8/23/91(i)

Basic Instinct, 4/3/92 (i)

Basic Instinct 2, 4/21/06 (i)

Batman Returns, 6/26/92 (i)

The Bear, 11/10/89 (i)

Beau travail, 5/26/00 (i)

Because of Winn-Dixie, 2/18/05 (i)

Before Sunset, 7/2/04 (i)

The Believer, 6/14/02 (i)

Bell Diamond, 12/11/87 (i)

La Belle Noiseuse, 1/31/92 (i)

Videos by Sadie Benning, 11/15/91 (i)

Besieged, 6/11/99 (i)

Best Films of the 1990s, 12/29/99 (i)

Betrayed, 9/2/88 (i)

Beyond Rangoon, 4/1/95 (i)

Beyond the Clouds, 4/7/00 (i)

Big Business, 6/17/88 (i)

The Big Lebowski, 3/6/98 (i)

The Big Red One: The Reconstruction, 11/19/04 (i)

The Big Sleep, 6/20/97 (i)

Bird, 10/21/88 (i)

The Birth of Love, 6/6/97 (i)

Bitter Moon, 4/8/94 (i)

Bitter Victory, 6/18/04 (i)

Black and Tan, 8/3/01 (i)

Blackboards, 4/25/03 (i)

Black Book, 4/20/07 (i)

Black Girl, 4/21/95 (i)

Blade Runner: The Final Cut, 11/1/07 (i)

The Blair Witch Project, 11/3/00 (i)

Bleak Moments, 1/10/92 (i)

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi, 8/6/04 (i)

The Blonds, 8/27/04 (i)

Blood in the Face, 12/6/91 (i)

Blood Work, 8/9/02 (i)

The Bloody Child, 9/27/96 (i)

Blooper Bunny, 1/26/01 (i)

Blown Away, 7/15/94 (i)

Blue, 2/11/94 (i)

The Blue Kite, 9/16/94 (i)

Blush, 10/2/96 (i)

Bob Roberts, 9/25/92 (i)

Bobby, 11/24/06 (i)

Bodies, Rest and Motion, 4/23/93 (i)

Body of Evidence, 1/29/93 (i)

Boesman & Lena, 2/2/01 (i)

Boiling Point, 4/23/93 (i)

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, 11/3/00 (i)

Boycott, 4/11/97 (i)

Boys Don’t Cry, 10/22/99 (i)

Boyz N the Hood, 7/19/91 (i)

The Brady Bunch Movie, 3/3/95 (i)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 11/27/92 (i)

Breakdown, 5/16/96 (i)

Breaking the Waves, 12/6/97 (i)

Films by Robert Bresson, 1/26/96 (i)

Brick and Mirror, 5/4/07 (i)

The Bridegroom, the Comedienne, and the Pimp, 5/2/97 (i)

The Bridges of Madison County, 6/23/94 (i)

The Brigands: Chapter VII, 7/5/98 (i)

A Brighter Summer Day, 11/7/97 (i)

Bright Leaves, 12/3/04 (i)

Bright Lights, Big City, 4/1/88 (i)

Brigitte et Brigitte, 11/31/06 (i)

Broadcast News, 12/25/87 (i)

Broadway Bill, 8/7/92 (i)

Broken Arrow, 2/23/96 (i)

Broken Flowers, 8/5/05 (i)

Buffalo ’66, 8/7/98 (i)

Bugsy, 12/20/91 (i)

Bull Durham, 7/1/88 (i)

Bulworth, 5/22/98 (i)

Films by Luis Buñuel, 11/10/00 (i)

The ‘Burbs, 2/24/89 (i)

Burn, Witch, Burn, 12/10/04 (i)

The Business of Strangers, 12/14/01(i)

By the Bluest of Seas, 2/6/04 (i)

Café Lumiere, 1/20/06 (i)

Calendar, 8/19/94 (i)

California Trilogy, 3/15/02 (i)

Le camion, 9/15/95 (i)

Can Dialectics Break Bricks?, 2/21/97 (i)

Candy Mountain, 8/12/88 (i)

Cannonball, 8/3/01 (i)

Cape Fear, 11/22/91 (i)

Capote, 10/21/05 (i)

Capturing the Friedmans, 6/13/03 (i)

Carmen Jones, 1/17/95 (i)

Caro Diario, 12/2/94 (i)

The Case of the Grinning Cat, 7/21/06 (i)

Casino, 12/1/95 (i)

Films by John Cassavetes, 9/20/91 (i)

Castaway. 9/16/88 (i)

Casualties of War, 9/1/89 (i)

The Cat’s Meow, 4/26/02 (i)

The Cats of Mirikitani, 4/6/07 (i)

Celebrating Bird, 10/21/88 (i)

The Celebration, 11/13/98 (i)

La cérémonie, 2/14/97 (i)

Chain, 3/4/05 (i)

Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman, 10/24/97 (i)

Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog, 6/20/03 (i)

Charlie Bartlett, 2/21/08 (i)

Chances Are, 3/17/89 (i)

Chekhov’s Motifs, 5/6/05 (i)

Chicago International Film Festival (1989), 10/13/89 & 10/27/89

Chicago International Film Festival (1990), 10/12/90 & 10/10/90

Chicago International Film Festival (1991), 10/11/91 & 10/18/91

Chicago International Film Festival (1992), 10/9/92 & 10/16/92

Chicago International Film Festival (1993), 10/8/93 & 10/15/93

Chicago International Film Festival (1994), 10/7/94 & 10/14/94

Chicago International Film Festival (1995), 10/13/95 & 10/20/95

Chicago International Film Festival (1996), 10/11/96 & 10/18/96

Chicago International Film Festival (1997), 10/10/97 & 10/17/97

Chicago International Film Festival (1998), 10/9/98 & 10/16/98

Chicago International Film Festival (1999), 10/1/99, 10/8/99, and 10/15/99

Chicago International Film Festival (2000), 10/6/00 & 10/13/00

Chicago International Film Festival (2001), 10/5/01 & 10/12/01

Chicago International Film Festival (2002), 10/4/02 & 10/11/02

Chicago International Film Festival (2003), 10/4/03 & 10/10/03

Chicago International Film Festival (2004), 10/8/04 & 10/15/04

Chicago International Film Festival (2005), 10/7/05

Chicago International Film Festival (2006), 10/6/06

Chicago International Film Festival (2007), 10/4/07 & 10/11/07

Chihwaseon, 6/6/03 (i)

Children of Men, 1/5/07 (i)

Children of the Revolution, 5/23/97 (i)

Le ciel est à vous, 10/25/02 (i)

Cinderella Man, 6/10/05 (i)

The Circle, 6/6/00 (i)

Citizen Ruth, 4/4/97 (i)

Cliffhanger, 6/11/93 (i)

Close-up, 6/14/96 (i)

Cobb, 1/13/95 (i)

Coffee and Cigarettes, 5/28/04 (i)

Cold Heaven, 8/14/92 (i)

Collateral, 8/6/04 (i)

The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova), 3/25/88 (i)

Colors, 5/6/88 (i)

“Commercial Correctness,” 12/24/93 (i)

La commune (Paris, 1871), 5/17/02 (i)

A Confucian Confusion, 11/7/97 (i)

Contact, 7/11/97 (i)

Contempt, 9/5/97 (i)

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, 4/13/90 (i)

The Corporation, 7/23/04 (i)

Films by Pedro Costa, 11/15/07 (i)

Crash (Cronenberg), 3/14/97 (i)

Crash (Haggis), 5/13/05 (i)

Crimson Gold, 4/16/04 (i)

Cross My Heart, 11/20/87 (i)

Cruel Intentions, 3/5/99 (i)

The Crucible, 12/20/97(i)

Crumb, 6/2/95 (i)

The Cry of Jazz, 8/3/01 (i)

Cuadecuc-Vampir aka Vampir-Cuadecuc, 11/10/06 (i)

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, 8/31/01 (i)

The Cyclist, 4/11/97 (i)

Cyclo, 11/1/96 (i)

Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters, 9/8/89 (i)

Damage, 1/29/93 (i)

Damnation, 5/23/90 (i) & 5/10/96 (i)

Dancer in the Dark, 10/27/00 (i)

Dangerous Liaisons, 1/20/89 (i)

Dark Blue, 2/28/03 (i)

Dave, 5/7/93 (i)

The Day after Tomorrow, 6/4/04 (i)

The Day I Became a Woman, 4/5/01 (i)

The Day the Sun Turned Cold, 8/11/95 (i)

Dead Again, 8/30/91 (i)

The Dead Girl, 1/12/07 (i)

Dead Man, 6/28/96 (i)

Dear Wendy, 9/25/05 (i)

Death Becomes Her, 7/31/92 (i)

Death of a President, 10/27/06 (i)

The Death of Empedocles, 12/2/88 (i)

Decalogue, 3/29/96 (i)

The Decay of Fiction, 5/30/03 (i)

Deep Cover, 8/28/92 (i)

The Deep End, 8/10/01 (i)

The Deep End of the Ocean, 3/12/99 (i)

Defending Your Life, 4/5/91 (i)

Demolition Man, 11/26/93 (i)

Deseret, 3/15/96 (i)

Destiny, 4/2/99 (i)

The Devil, Probably, 1/26/96 (i)

Diamond Men, 2/1/02 (i)

Dice Rules, 5/24/91 (i)

Dick Tracy, 6/15/90 (i)

Distant Voices, Still Lives, 8/18/89 (i)

Divertimento, 8/26/94 (i)

Le Divorce, 8/8/03 (i)

“Documenting the Director,” 5/4/90 (i)

The Doom Generation, 11/10/95 (i)

“Doses of Reality,” 8/15/03 (i)

Do the Right Thing, 6/30/89 (i) & 8/4/89 (i)

Films by Alexander Dovzhenko, 6/7/02 (i)

Down with Love, 7/11/03 (i)

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary, 7/11/03 (i)

Dragnet Girl, 1/14/05 (i)

Dr. Akagi, 5/7/99 (i)

The Dreamers, 2/20/04 (i)

Drifting Clouds, 7/10/98 (i)

Duelle, 2/28/92 (i)

Duets, 9/22/00 (i)

Duo, 2/26/99 (i)

Dumb and Dumber, 1/13/95 (i)

Films by Marguerite Duras, 9/15/95 (i)

Earth, 6/7/02 (i)

Earth Girls are Easy, 5/12/89 (i)

Echelon: The Secret Power, 3/21/03 (i)

Eclipse, 4/9/93 (i)

The Edge of the World, 6/9/00 (i)

EDtv, 3/26/99 (i)

Ed Wood, 10/21/94 (i)

The Eel, 9/11/98 (i)

Eighteen Springs, 4/17/98 (i)

Elephant, 11/7/03 (i)

Films by Cy Endfield, 7/10/92 (i) & 1/15/93 (i)

Empire of the Sun, 12/18/87 (i)

Enemies, A Love Story, 1/19/90 (i)

L’ennui, 1/28/00 (i)

Entertainment as Oppression, 9/23/88 (i)

Escape from L.A., 8/30/96 (i)

Essai d’ouverture, 11/31/06 (i)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 5/19/04 (i)

Europa Europa, 11/8/91 (i)

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, 5/27/94 (i)

Everyone Says I Love You, 1/24/97 (i)

The Exiles, 12/10/04 (i)

Exotica, 3/17/95 (i)

The Eye of Vichy, 6/24/94 (i)

Eyes Wide Shut, 7/23/99 (i)

Eyes without a Face, 11/24/95 (i)

Faces, 9/20/91 (I)

Fahrenheit 9/11, 6/25/04 (i)

A False Student, 5/1/98 (i)

A Family Thing, 4/12/96 (i)

The Famine Within, 3/13/92 (i)

Far from Heaven, 11/22/02 (i)

Far from Vietnam, 12/8/89 (i)

Fargo, 3/29/96 (i)

Films by Harun Farocki, 2/14/92 (i)

Films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 5/2/97 (i)

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, 11/14/97 (i)

Fatal Attraction, 10/1/87 (i)

Fearless, 11/26/93 (i)

15 Minutes, 3/23/01 (I)

Femme Fatale, 11/8/02 (i)

Films about Films, 5/4/90 (i) & 11/22/96 (i)

The Final Insult, 3/27/98 (i)

Find Me Guilty, 3/17/06 (i)

Fire in the Sky, 3/19/93 (i)

First Graders, 6/14/96 (i)

The Fisher King, 9/27/91 (i)

Films by Oskar Fischinger, 4/20/01 (i)

The Five Obstructions, 9/10/04 (i)

Flaming Creatures, 2/20/98 (i)

Fleeing from Evil to Good, 4/11/97 (i)

Flesh and Bone, 11/19/93 (i)

The Flintstones, 6/10/94 (i)

Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, 9/14/07 (i)

The Fog of War, 1/23/04 (i)

Ford Transit, 5/7/04 (i)

Forrest Gump, 7/8/94 (i)

Four Corners, 12/12/97 (I)

Four Rooms, 1/19/96 (i)

The 4th Animation Celebration: The Movie, 5/22/92 (i)

The Fourth Dimension, 6/15/01 (i)

Fox and His Friends, 5/2/97 (i)

Foxfire, 8/30/96 (i)

The Freshman, 7/27/90 (i)

Frida, 9/4/87 (i)

The Frighteners, 7/19/96 (i)

From the Journals of Jean Seberg, 1/12/96 (i)

From the Other Side, 5/16/03 (i)

Gabbeh, 8/29/97 (i)

The Gang of Four, 6/22/90 (i)

Gangs of New York, 12/20/02 (i)

Gap-Toothed Women 2/19/88 (i)

The Gatekeeper, 8/15/03 (i)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 12/2/05 (i)

George of the Jungle, 8/1/97 (i)

Germany Year 90 Nine Zero, 8/4/95 (i)

Getting to Know the Big Wide World, 5/6/05 (i)

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, 3/17/00 (i)

Ghosts of Mississippi, 12/20/97 (i)

Ghost World, 8/10/01 (i)

Giants and Toys, 5/1/98 (i)

Gigli, 8/15/03 (i)

The Gingerbread Man, 2/27/98 (i)

The Girl from Monday, 4/15/05 (i)

A Girl is a Gun aka Une Aventure de Billy le Kid, 3/31/05 (i)

The Girl on the River, 5/13/94 (i)

The Glass Shield, 6/16/95

The Gleaners and I, 5/11/01 (i)

Gloria (Lumet), 1/29/99 (i)

The Golden Eighties, 1/26/90 (i)

Films by Ebrahim Golestan, 5/4/07 (i)

Golub, 2/17/89 (i)

Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes (revised version of Golub), 4/1/05 (i)

The Godfather, Part III, 1/18/91 (I)

GoodFellas, 10/5/90 (i)

Good Night, and Good Luck (10/21/05) (i)

The Good Son, 10/1/93 (i)

Gosford Park, 1/18/02 (i)

The Graduate, 3/28/97 (i)

Great Balls of Fire, 7/7/89 (i)

Greed (four-hour version), 11/26/99 (i)

Films by Jean Grémillon, 10/25/02 (i)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 6/29/90 (i)

Gross Fatigue, 7/21/95 (i)

Groundhog Day, 3/5/93 (i)

Grown-Ups, 1/10/92 (i)

Guelwaar, 4/22/94 (i)

Guilty By Suspicion, 3/22/91

Hairspray, 3/4/88 (i)

Half Nelson, 9/15/06 (i)

Hangin’ with the Homeboys, 10/4/91 (i)

Happy Together, 1/23/98 (i)

Hard Labour, 1/10/92 (i)

Havana, 12/14/90 (i)

Hav Plenty, 6/19/98 (i)

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, 1/24/92 (i)

The Heart of the World, 2/23/01

Hell Drivers, 710/92 (i)

Henry and June, 10/25/90 (i)

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, 4/14/89 (i)

High Hopes, 4/21/89 & 1/1//92 (i)

Hiroshima mon amour, 9/15/95 (i)

Histoire(s) du cinéma, 7/16/93 (i)

A History of Violence, 9/30/05 (i)

Hit and Runway, 9/7/01 (i)

The Hoax, 4/6/07 (i)

Hollow Man, 9/11/00 (i)

Homework, 9/29/95 (i) & 6/14/96 (i)

Honeydripper, 1/17/08 (i)

Hook, 12/20/91 (i)

Hope and Glory, 11/13/87 (i)

The Horse Thief, 9/18/87 (i)

Films by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 6/2/00 (i)

The Hours and Times, 11/6/92 (i)

Housekeeping, 1/22/88 (i)

House of Cards, 7/2/93 (i)

Housesitter, 6/11/92 (i)

Howl’s Moving Castle, 6/10/05 (i)

How to Live in the Federal Republic of Germany, 2/24/92 (i)

The Hudsucker Proxy, 4/1/94 (i)

L’humanité, 6/23/00 (i)

Human Nature, 4/12/02 (i)

A Humble Life, 3/3/00 (i)

Hyenas, 7/7/95 (i)

I am Cuba, 12/8/95 (i)

I Am Cuba, Siberian Mammoth, 4/1/05 (i)

I am Curious, Film, 11/22/97

The Icicle Thief, 9/14/90 (i)

An Ideal Husband, 6/25/99

I’ll Do Anything, 2/18/94 (i)

The Illusionist, 8/18/06 (i)

An Image, 2/14/92 (i)

Images of the World and the Inscription of War, 2/14/92 (i)

I’m Going Home, 9/13/02 (i)

I’m Not There, 11/22/07 (i)

“In defense of non-masterpieces,” 4/17/98 (i)

India, Matri Bhumi, 8/31/07 (i)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 6/2/89

India Song, 9/15/95 (i)

Inextinguishable Fire, 2/14/92 (i) & 11/20/98 (i)

Infamous, 10/13/06 (i)

Inflation, 1/15/92 (i)

Inland Empire, 1/26/07 (i)

In Praise of Love, 10/18/02 (i)

In the Company of Men, 8/15/97 (i)

In the Land of the Deaf, 8/5/94 (i)

In the Mirror of Maya Deren, 10/31/03 (i)

In the Mouth of Madness, 2/3/95 (i)

Intimate Stranger, 6/19/92 (i)

Inventing the Abbotts, 4/4/97 (i)

Irma Vep, 6/13/97 (i)

Irreversible, 3/14/03 (i)

I Stand Alone, 7/9/99 (i)

It Happened Here, 4/23/99 (i)

It’s All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles, 10/29/93 (i)

Ivan, 6/7/02 (i)

Films by Joris Ivens, 5/10/02 (i)

I Was Born, But…, 1/14/05 (i)

Jacob’s Ladder, 11/16/90 (i)

Jaguar, 11/2/90 (i)

Jarhead, 11/4/05

Jazz films, 8/3/01 (i)

Jazz on a Summer’s Day, 8/3/01 (i)

Jazz ’34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing, 5/8/98 (i)

Jeanne Dielman, 1/26/90 (i)

Jean Renoir, The Boss: The Direction of Actors, 11/25/05

Jesus of Montreal, 7/20/90

Jet Storm, 7/10/92 (i)

Je tu il elle, 1/26/90 (i)

J-LG by J-LG, 8/4/95 (i)

John Huston and the Dubliners, 7/8/88 (i)

Films by Jon Jost, 5/8/92 (i)

Jour de fête, 1/16/98 (i)

The Journey: Portrait of Vera Chytilova, 4/1/05 (i)

Ju Dou, 4/19/91 (i)

Jungle Fever, 6/21/91 (i)

Junior, 11/25/94 (i)

“Junket Bonds” (excerpt from Movie Wars), 11/17/00

Kandahar, 2/15/02 (i)

Kate & Leopold, 12/21/01 (i)

Films by Abbas Kiarostami, 6/14/96 (i)

Kicking and Screaming, 11/10/95 (i)

Kikujiro, 6/30/00

Killer of Sheep, 8/3/07 (i)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, 9/20/91 (i)

The Kingdom, 11/24/95 (i)

The King is Alive, 5/18/01

King Lear (Godard), 4/8/88 (i)

King of Chess, 3/20/92

Kira, 5/6/05 (i)

Kiss Me Kate, 12/21/01 (i)

Kiss of Death (Leigh), 1/10/92 (i)

Kiss of Death (Schroeter), 4/28/95 (i)

Kisses, 5/1/98 (i)

Films by William Klein, 12/8/89 (i)

Khroustaliov, My Car!, 4/28/00 (i)

K-Pax, 11/2/01

Kundun, 1/30/98 (i)

The Ladykillers, 3/26/04 (i)

Lancelot of the Lake, 1/26/96 (i)

Land without Bread, 11/10/00 (i)

Larger Than Life, 11/15/96 (i)

Last Action Hero, 6/25/93 (i)

The Last Bolshevik, 1/21/94

Last Chants for a Slow Dance, 5/8/92 (i)

The Last Conversation, 3/21/03 (i)

Last Days, 8/12/05

The Last Emperor, 12/18/87 (i) & 8/20/04 (i)

Last Exit to Brooklyn, 5/11/90 (i)

The Last Good Time, 5/5/95 (I)

The Last Temptation of Christ, 8/19/88 (i)

Last Year at Marienbad, 5/1/08 (i)

Latcho Drom, 2/10/95 (i)

Late Chrysanthemums, 2/24/06 (i)

Lawrence of Arabia, 3/23/89 (i)

A League of Their Own, 7/17/92

The Legend of Suram Fortress, 3/25/88 (i)

Films by Mike Leigh, 1/10/92 (i)

Let’s Get Lost 7/21/89 (i)

Letters from Iowa Jima, 1/12/07 (i)

Life and Nothing More, 10/23/92 (i) & 6/14/96 (i)

Life is Sweet, 1/10/92 (i)

Life Stinks, 8/2/91 (i)

The Lighted Field, 4/29/88 (i)

Light Sleeper, 9/4/92 (i)

The Limping Man, 7/10/92 (i)

The Lion Hunters, 11/2/90 (i)

The Lion King, 7/22/94

“Listening Party: Eight Jazz Films,” 8/3/01 (i)

“Listomania,” 12/22/89 (i)

Little Buddha, 6/3/94 (i)

The Little Girl of Hanoi, 5/13/94

Little Man Tate, 10/15/91

The Little Richard Story, 12/8/89 (i)

A Little Stiff, 9/6/91 (i)

The Little Thief, 10/6/89 (i)

The Long Day Closes, 7/30/93 (i)

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, 1/20/06 (i)

Look Who’s Talking, 11/24/89

Looney Tunes: Back in Action, 11/21/03 (i)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 12/21/01 (i)

Los Angeles Plays Itself, 10/1/04 (i)

The Lost City, 5/19/06

Lost Highway, 2/28/97 (i)

Lost in La Mancha, 2/21/03 (i)

Love Affair, 10/28/94 (i)

Love for an Idiot, 5/1/98 (i)

Love in the City, 4/9/93 (i)

The Lovers of the Arctic Circle, 5/14/99 (i)

Lumière d’été, 10/25/02 (i)

The Luzhin Defense, 5/4/01

Lyrical Nitrate, 8/6/93 (i)

M, 8/8/97 (i)

Macao, or Beyond the Sea, 7/14/89 (i)

Macbeth (Tarr), 5/10/96 (i)

Mad Dog and Glory, 3/5/93 (i)

Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buildings and Legacy in Japan, 7/22/05 (i)

Mahjong, 11/7/97 (i)

Les maitres fous, 11/2/90 (i)

The Majestic, 12/21/01 (i)

Major Payne, 3/24/95 (i)

Films by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 4/11/97 (i)

Malcolm X, 12/11/92

Mammame, 11/6/87 (i)

Mamma Roma, 5/19/95 (i)

The Manchurian Candidate, 3/11/88 (i)

A Man Escaped, 1/26/96 (i)

Manhattan Murder Mystery, 8/27/93 (i)

Man Hunt, 12/6/02 (i)

Man of the West, 7/5/02 (i)

The Man with a Golden Arm, 1/17/95 (i)

El mariachi, 4/16/93

Marriage of the Blessed, 4/11/97 (i)

Mars Attacks!, 12/13/96 (i)

Martha, 5/2/97 (i)

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, 11/25/94 (i)

Masculine Feminine, 4/15/05 (i)

Masked and Anonymous, 8/15/03 (i)

Mason & Dixon (novel), 7/14/97 (i)

Films by Yasuzo Masumura, 5/1/98 (i)

The Match Factory Girl, 2/19/92 (i)

Match Point, 1/13/06 (i)

Matinee, 2/5/92 (i)

McLuhan’s Wake, 3/21/03 (i)

Me and You and Everyone We Know, 6/24/05 (i)

Meantime, 1/10/92 (i)

Medea, 9/26/97 (i)

Melinda and Melinda, 3/25/05 (i)

Mélo, 4/15/88 (I)

Memoirs of an Invisible Man, 3/6/92 (i)

Men Don’t Leave, 3/2/90 (i)

Men in Black, 7/11/97 (i)

Metropolis, 8/16/02 (i)

Miami Blues, 4/27/90 (i)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 11/28/97

Midnight Run, 7/22/88 (i)

Million Dollar Baby, 12/24/04 (i)

Mindhunters, 5/13/05 (i)

Mindwalk, 11/13/92 (i)

Mingus, 8/3/01 (i)

Minority Report, 6/28/02 (i)

Misery, 12/7/90 (i)

“Missing the Target,” 6/18/93 (i)

Mission: Impossible, 6/7/96 (i)

Mississippi Burning, 12/16/88 (i)

Mix-up, 2/26/88 (i)

Mo’ Better Blues, 8/3/90 (i)

Mode in France, 12/8/89 (i)

Les Modèles de “Pickpocket,” 4/2/04 (i)

The Moderns, 5/13/88 (i)

Moments Choisis des Histoire(s) du Cinéma, 3/10/06 (i)

Monday Morning, 6/6/03 (i)

Monkey Shines, 7/29/88 (i)

Marilyn Monroe, 12/2/05 (i)

Monster-in-Law, 5/13/05 (i)

Monster’s Ball, 2/22/02

Montparnasse 19, 7/16/93 (i)

The Moon is Blue, 1/17/95 (i)

Mortal Thoughts, 4/26/91 (i)

Mother, 1/24/97 (i)

The Mother and the Whore, 1/22/99 (i)

Films by Luc Moullet, 3/31/06 (i)

El movimiento, 1/16/04 (i)

Mozart Quarter, 7/23/93

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 6/10/05 (i)

Mr. Coconut, 3/20/92

Mr. Freedom, 12/8/89 (i)

Mr. Hoover and I, 5/18/90 (i)

Mr. Jealousy, 6/19/98 (i)

Mr. Zhao, 9/3/99 (i)

Multiplicity, 7/19/96 (i)

Films by Kira Muratova, 5/6/05 (i)

The Murder of Emmett Till, 3/21/03 (i)

The Muse, 8/27/99 (i)

The Music of Chance, 9/24/93 (i)

Music videos, 2/23/90 (i)

My Best Fiend, 2/11/00 (i)

My Cousin Vinny, 4/24/92 (i)

My Dad is 100 Years Old, 6/16/06 (i)

My Father’s Glory, 8/9/91 (i)

My Favorite Season, 6/7/96 (i)

My Life, 11/26/93 (i)

My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud, 2/16/96 (i)

My Life’s in Turnaround, 9/2/94

My New Gun, 4/30/93 (i)

Mysterious Object at Noon, 3/22/02 (i)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, 4/19/96 (i)

Mystery Train, 2/9/90 (i)

Mystic River, 10/24/03 (i)

Naked, 2/25/94 (i)

The Naked Gun, 12/9/88

Naked Lunch, 1/17/92 (i)

The Naked Spur, 7/5/02 (i)

Nanou, 1/27/89 (i)

The Nasty Girl, 3/15/91

Nathalie Granger, 9/15/95 (i)

Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property, 2/23/07 (i)

Natural Born Killers, 8/26/94 (i)

Negative Space, 5/12/00 (i)

Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud, 6/21/96 (i)

The Neon Bible, 4/5/96 (i)

New Suit, 11/28/03

The Newton Boys, 4/3/98 (i)

New York Stories, 3/3/89 (i)

Night and Day, 3/26/93 (i)

Night Falls on Manhattan, 5/16/97 (i)

Night on Earth, 5/15/92 (i)

Nightjohn, 7/12/96 (i)

Nights of Cabiria, 8/21/98 (i)

9 Songs, 8/26/05 (i)

Nixon, 12/22/95 (i)

Nobody’s Fool, 1/20/95

No Country For Old Men, 11/8/07 (i)

Nocturno 29, 11/10/06 (i)

North on Evers, 10/2/92 (i)

Noroît, 2/28/92 (i)

No Smoking, 12/15/00 (i) (see also Smoking)

No Such Thing, 3/29/02 (i)

Not on the Lips, 3/18/05 (i)

The Notorious Bettie Page, 4/21/06 (i)

Notre musique, 1/28/05

The Nun, 11/30/90 (i)

The Nutty Professor, 7/19/96 (i)

The Object of Beauty, 5/3/91 (i)

Offside, 4/20/07 (i)

Okraina (Outskirts), 2/6/04 (i)

Oleanna, 11/11/94 (i)

Once Around, 2/1/91

Once Upon a Time, Cinema, 4/11/97 (i)

One Day in the Life of Andre Arsenevich, 9/15/00 (i)

100 Best American Films, 6/25/98

100 Years of Japanese Cinema, 11/22/96 (i)

On the Road with Duke Ellington, 8/3/01 (i)

Opening Night, 9/20/91 (i)

Opening Tries, 11/31/06 (i)

Oporto of My Childhood, 3/21/03 (i)

Or, 6/24/05 (i)

Orphans, 9/25/87 (i)

Oscar, 5/3/91 (i)

Othello (Welles), 4/10/92

Other Voices, Other Rooms, 2/13/98 (i)

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, 7/30/04 (i)

Out of Sight, 7/3/98 (i)

Out 1, 5/25/07 (i)

Silent Films by Yasujiro Ozu, 1/14/05 (i)

The Panama Deception, 9/28/92 (i)

Pan’s Labyrinth, 1/5/07 (i)

Parade, 12/1/89 (i)

Parents, 4/7/89 (i)

Passage à l’acte, 2/18/00 (i)

Passing Fancy, 1/14/05 (i)

Passions, 5/6/05 (i)

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, 3/16/90

The Peddler, 4/11/97 (i)

Films by Sergei Paradjanov, 3/25/88 (i)

The Phantom, 6/7/96 (i)

The Piano, 12/10/93 (i)

Pièce touchée, 2/18/00 (i)

Pierrot le fou, 6/9/89 (i)

Pistol Opera, 8/22/03 (i)

The Player, 5/1/92 (i)

Pleasantville, 11/6/98 (i)

The Pledge, 1/26/01 (i)

Plot Against Harry, The, 3/9/90 (i)

Pocahontas, 6/30/95 (i)

Poison, 7/12/91 (i)

Films by Pere Portabella, 11/10/06 (i)

Poulet au vinaigre, 5/6/89 (i)

Prelude to a Kiss, 7/17/92

Films by Otto Preminger, 1/17/95 (i)

Pretty Woman, 7/13/90

Priest, 4/14/95

Primary Colors, 3/20/98 (i)

Princes in Exile, 2/22/91 (i)

The Prisoners of Buñuel, 11/10/00 (i)

Private Conversations, 2/15/91

Private Fears in Public Places, 6/8/07 (i)

Privilege, 3/8/91

La promesse, 8/22/97 (i)

Psycho (Van Sant), 12/25/98 (i)

Pulp Fiction, 10/21/94 (i)

Pumpkin, 7/26/02 (i)

Pump Up the Volume, 8/17/90 (i)

The Puppet Master, 12/8/93 (i)

Pushing Tin, 4/30/99 (i)

Q & A, 4/27/90 (i)

Queimada (aka Burn!), 8/20/04 (i)

Quills, 12/15/00 (i)

Quiz Show, 9/23/94 (i)

Radio Days, 3/13/87 (i)

Radium City, 2/5/88 (i)

A Rage in Harlem, 5/3/91 (i)

The Raggedy Rawney, 9/7/90 (i)

The Rainmaker (aka John Grisham’s The Rainmaker), 11/28/97

Rear Window, 2/25/00 (i)

Rebel Highway, 11/18/94

Red, 12/16/94 (i)

Red Angel, 5/1/98 (i)

“Redeemable for Cash: The Damned and the Saved,” 12/23/94 (i)

Red Heat, 6/17/88 (i)

Red Hollywood, 8/9/96 (i)

Reel Paradise, 9/23/05 (i)

Regularly or Irregularly, 6/14/96 (i)

Rembrandt Laughing, 9/29/89 (i)

Repentance, 5/6/88 (i)

Requiem for a Dream, 12/1/00 (i)

The Retired General, 5/13/94

A Return to Salem’s Lot, 9/16/88 (i)

Revolution, 8/20/04 (i)

Rhapsody in August, 2/24/92 (i)

Rising Sun, 8/13/93 (i)

The River (Tsai), 4/14/00 (i)

Roads of Kiarostami, 6/9/06 (i)

Road to Perdition, 8/9/02 (i)

The Robe, 8/15/03 (i)

Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, 11/20/92 (i)

Roger & Me, 2/2/90

Romance, 11/12/99 (i)

Rosenstrasse, 8/27/04 (i)

Rosetta, 1/14/00 (i)

Films by Jean Rouch, 11/2/90 (i)

The Royal Tenenbaums, 12/21/01 (i)

Rumble in the Bronx, 2/23/96 (i)

Run Lola Run, 7/2/99 (i)

Running on Empty, 10/7/88 (i)

Rushmore, 2/12/99 (i)

The Russia House, 12/14/90 (i)

The Saddest Music in the World, 5/14/04 (i)

Safe, 7/29/95 (i)

Saint Joan, 1/17/95 (i)

Salaam Cinema, 4/11/97 (i)

Samaritan Girl, 6/24/05 (i)

The Same River Twice, 3/23/03 (i)

La samourai, 6/6/97 (i)

Sands of the Kalahari, 7/10/92 (i)

Santa Sangre, 6/22/90 (i)

Saraband, 8/2/05 (i)

Satantango, 10/14/94 (i) & 5/10/96 (i)

Savage Nights, 2/25/94 (i)

Saving Private Ryan, 7/24/98 (i)

Say Anything…, 4/28/89 (i)

Scandal, 5/5/89 (i)

The Scent of Green Papaya, 3/11/94 (i)

Schindler’s List, 12/17/93

Scoop, 7/28/06 (i)

The Score, 7/20/01 (i)

Scotch Tape, 2/20/98 (i)

Scrooged, 11/25/88 (i)

The Second Heimat, 5/6/94 (i)

Secret Ballot, 8/30/02 (i)

The Secret of the Treasure of the Jinn Valley, 5/3/07 (i)

Secrets and Lies, 10/25/97 (i)

The Secret Window, 3/12/04

See You in the Morning, 4/28/89 (i)

The Sentinel, 12/4/98

September 11, 9/5/03

Serial Mom, 4/15/94 (i)

Seven, 10/6/05 (i)

The Seventh Victim, 12/10/04 (i)

Sex, Lies, and Videotape, 8/25/89 (i)

Shadow of the Vampire, 1/26/01 (i)

Shadows, 9/20/91 (i)

Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, 3/25/88 (i)

The Shape of Things, 5/9/03 (i)

The Sheltering Sky, 1/25/91 (i)

She’s So Lovely, 8/29/97 (i)

Shirin (dialogue with Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa), 10/22/09 (i)

Shirley Valentine, 9/22/89 (i)

Short Cuts, 10/22/93 (i)

Shower, 7/28/00

Shulie, 11/20/98 (i)

Shy People, 5/27/88 (i)

Sicko, 6/29/07

Les Sièges de l’Alcazar, 3/31/06 (i)

The Silence of the Lambs, 2/22/91 (i)

Silver City, 9/16/04 (i)

Silverlake Life: The View from Here, 5/7/93 (i)

Signs & Wonders, 6/15/01 (i)

Six O’Clock News, 4/24/98 (i)

Sleepwalk, 1/29/88 (i)

Sleepy Hollow, 11/19/99 (i)

The Sleepy Time Gal, 3/29/02 (i)

Sling Blade, 4/25/97 (i)

Small Soldiers, 7/24/98 (i)

Small Time Crooks, 5/19/00 (i)

Smilla’s Sense of Snow, 3/14/97

Smoke, 6/19/95

Smoking, 12/15/00 (i) (see also No Smoking)

The Smugglers, 3/31/06 (i)

Snake Eyes, 9/4/98 (i)

Sneakers, 9/11/92 (i)

Soft and Hard, 11/17/95 (i)

Solaris (Soderbergh), 11/29/02 (i)

Solaris (Tarkovsky), 1/12/90 (i)

The Son of Gascogne, 8/14/98 (i)

Son of the Pink Panther, 9/3/93

The Sound of Fury, 7/10/92 (i)

Space is the Place, 8/3/01 (i)

Spanglish, 12/17/04 (i)

Spartacus, 5/10/91 (i)

Speaking Directly, 5/8/92 (i)

Special Effects, 7/19/96 (i)

Springtime in a Small Town, 7/9/04 (i)

Starship Troopers, 11/21/97 (i)

Star Spangled to Death, 2/27/04 (i)

Star Time, 5/21/93 (i)

Starting Out in the Evening, 12/13/07 (i)

Star Wars, 1/31/97 (i)

Stevie, 3/23/03 (i)

Stone Reader, 7/18/03 (i)

The Story of Qiu Ju, 5/28/93 (i)

The Straight Story, 10/22/99 (i)

Strange Days, 10/27/95 (i)

A Streetcar Named Desire, 11/19/93 (i)

Stuck on You, 12/19/03 (i)

Sunday, 9/26/97 (i)

Super Size Me, 5/7/04 (i)

Super Sucker, 1/24/03

Surname Viet Given Name Nam, 6/23/89 (i)

Swan Lake — The Zone, 6/14/91 (i)

Sweetie, 3/30/90 (i)

Switch, 5/17/91 (i)

Sylvia, 10/31/03 (i)

Taboo (aka Gohatto), 1/19/01 (i)

Taipei Story, 11/7/97 (i)

Take, The, 5/7/04 (i)

A Tale of Springtime, 11/6/92 (i)

A Tale of the Wind, 5/29/92 (i)

A Tale of Two Sisters, 12/10/04 (i)

Tales from the Gimli Hospital, 9/15/89 (i)

Talking to Strangers, 11/4/88 (i)

Talk Radio, 12/23/88 (i)

Tampopo, 9/11/87 (i)

Tank Girl, 4/7/95 (i)

Tap, 2/10/89 (i)

Tape, 11/16/01 (i)

Targeting, 6/18/93 (i)

Films by Bela Tarr, 5/10/96 (i)

Taste of Cherry, 5/29/98 (i)

The Taste of Life, 2/14/92 (i)

Taxi Driver, 3/1/96 (i)

10, 4/11/03 (i)

Ten Best (1987), 1/8/88 (i)

Ten Best (1988), 1/6/89 (i)

Ten Best (1989), 1/5/90

Ten Best (1990), 1/4/91

Ten Best (1991), 1/3/92

Ten Best (1992), 1/8/93

Ten Best (1993), 1/7/94

“Ten” Best [31] (1994), 1/6/95

Ten Best (1995), 1/5/96

Ten Best (1996), 1/10/97

Ten Best (1997), 1/9/98 (i)

Ten Best (1998), 1/8/99

Ten Best (1999), 1/7/00

Ten Best of the 1990s, 12/29/99 (i)

“Ten” Best [40] (2000), 1/5/01

Ten Best (2001), 1/4/02

“Ten” Best [40] (2002), 1/3/03

Ten Best (2003), 1/2/04

“Ten” Best [50] (2004), 1/7/05

“Ten” Best [25] (2005), 1/6/06 (i)

Ten Best (2007), 1/3/08

The Ten Commandments, 4/6/90 (i)

10 on Ten, 10/29/04

Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 7/5/91 (i)

Testaments: Richard Pena and the Film Center, 5/13/88 (i)

That Night’s Wife, 1/14/05 (i)

Thelma & Louise, 6/7/91(i)

Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, 8/3/01 (i)

They Live, 11/18/88 (i)

Thieves, 12/27/96 (i)

The Thin Red Line, 1/15/99 (i)

The Third Man, 6/30/99 (i)

13 (Tzameti), 9/8/06 (i)

The Thirteenth Floor, 6/4/99 (i)

30 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle, 9/18/00 (i)

This Film is Not Yet Rated, 9/15/06 (i)

The Thomas Crown Affair, 8/6/99 (i)

Thousand Cranes, 5/1/98 (i)

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, 2/3/06 (i)

Three Lives and Only One Death, 2/28/97 (i)

Three Stories, 5/6/05 (i)

Three Times, 6/23/06 (i)

Through the Olive Trees, 9/29/95 (i)

The Tic Code, 9/1/00 (i)

Timecode, 4/28/00 (i)

Time Out, 4/19/02 (i)

Time Regained, 7/21/00 (i)

Tin Cup, 8/30/96 (i)

Titanic, 12/19/97 (i)

Tokyo Chorus, 1/14/05 (i)

Too Late Blues, 9/20/91 (i)

Torch Song Trilogy, 12/23/88 (i)

Total Recall, 6/8/90 (i)

Toute une nuit, 1/26/90 (i)

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, 9/9/95 (i)

Track 29, 10/14/88 (i)

Trailers & product plugs, 12/21/90 (i)

Trainspotting, 8/2/96 (i)

Trekkies, 1/31/97 (i)

Trixie, 7/14/00 (i)

The Truman Show, 6/4/98 (i)

Truth or Dare, 5/24/91 (i)

Try and Get Me!, 7/10/92 (i)

Tucker: The Man and His Dream, 8/19/88 (i)

25th Hour, 1/17/03 (i)

Twilight, 3/6/98 (i)

Twin Peaks, 4/20/90 (i)

Twister, 8/31/90 (i)

Two Solutions for One Problem, 6/14/96 (i)

2 X 50 Years of French Cinema, 11/22/96 (i)

Typically British, 11/22/96 (i)

Ulee’s Gold, 6/27/97 (i)

Umbracle, 11/10/06 (i)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, 5/17/96 (i)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 2/12/88 (i)

Uncle Nino, 2/18/05 (i)

Uncommon Senses, 8/26/88

The Underneath, 4/28/95 (i)

Under the Sand, 8/10/01 (i)

The Underworld Story, 7/10/92 (i)

“The Undistributed,” 12/25/92 (i)

Universal Hotel, 1/16/04 (i)

Universal Soldier, 7/17/92

Unlawful Entry, 7/17/92

Up Down Fragile, 7/26/96 (i)

Utopia, 12/11/98 (i)

El Valley Centro, 12/3/99 (i)

Valley of Abraham, 8/15/95

Vampir-Cuadecuc, 11/10/06 (i)

Les vampires, 10/9/87 (i)

Van Gogh, 3/12/93 (i)

Vanilla Sky, 12/21/01 (i)

Venice/Venice, 1/22/93 (i)

The Vertical Ray of the Sun, 9/14/01

Vineland (novel), 2/9/90 (i)

Visions of Light, 8/6/93 (i)

The Voice of the Moon, 12/1/95 (i)

Waco: The Rules of Engagement, 9/19/97 (i)

The Wages of Fear, 3/6/92 (i)

Waking Life, 10/26/01 (i)

Waking the Dead, 3/24/00 (i)

Walker, 12/4/87 (i)

Wall Street, 12/25/87 (i)

The War of the Roses, 12/15/89 (i)

Warsaw Bridge, 11/10/06 (i)

The Wedding Planner, 1/26/01 (i)

Welcome to the Dollhouse, 6/21/96 (i)

Western, 4/9/99 (i)

We the Living, 1/27/89 (i)

What Farocki Taught, 11/20/98 (i)

What the Bleep Do We Know?, 9/10/04 (i)

What Time Is It There?, 3/1/02 (i)

White, 6/17/94 (i)

The White Balloon, 3/8/96 (i)

White Dog, 11/29/91 (i)

White Hunter, Black Heart, 9/28/90 (i)

White Men Can’t Jump, 4/24/92 (i)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 6/24/88 (i)

Who Killed Vincent Chin?, 5/19/89 (i)

Who’s That Girl, 10/20/87 (i)

Wichita, 12/5/03 (i)

The Widow of Saint Pierre, 3/30/01 (i)

Wild at Heart, 8/24/90 (i)

Willow, 6/10/88 (i)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, 7/21/06 (i)

Window Shopping, 1/26/90 (i)

The Wind Will Carry Us, 12/8/00 (i)

Wings of Desire, 7/15/88 (i)

Winstanley, 4/23/99 (i)

A Winter Tan, 3/10/89 (i)

Without You I’m Nothing, 7/6/90 (i)

The Wolf at the Door, 9/4/87 (i)

A Woman is a Woman, 7/25/03 (i)

A Woman Under the Influence, 9/20/91 (i)

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, 6/24/94 (i)

Woodstock, 8/12/94 (i)

The World, 7/29/05 (i)

World Trade Center, 8/11/06 (i)

Films by Edward Yang, 11/7/97 (i)

Yang and Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, 11/22/97 (i)

Yes, 7/8/05 (i)

Yi Yi, 3/2/01 (i)

The Young Girls of Rochefort, 11/27/98 (i)

The Young One, 10/8/93 (i)

Zabriskie Point. 4/9/93 (i)

Zentropa, 7/3/92 (i)

Zulu, 7/10/92 (i)

Published on 15 Jun 2012 in Notes, by jrosenbaum

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Problems of Classification: A Few Traits in Four Films by Ermanno Olmi

Written for an Italian publication about Olmi and published there earlier this month. — J.R.

For me, the cinema is a state of mind and a process of analysis from a series of detailed observations.

– Ermanno Olmi, from a 1988 interview (1)

Ermanno Olmi first became well known as a filmmaker during the period in the early 1960s when the Nouvelle Vague and, more specifically, François Truffaut’s formulation of la politique des auteurs, were near the height of their international influence. Yet it seems that one factor that has limited Olmi’s reputation as an auteur over the half-century that has passed since then is his apparent reluctance and/or inability to remain type-cast in either his choice of film projects or in his execution of them. Indeed, the fact that he repeatedly eludes and/or confounds whatever auteurist profile that criticism elects to construct for him in its effort to classify his artistry results in a periodic neglect of him followed by periodic “rediscoveries”. And these rediscoveries are confused in turn by the fact that each rediscovery of Olmi’s work seems to redefine his profile rather than build on the preceding one.

At least this has been the gist of my own experience. Although I’m clearly restricted by having seen only four Olmi features to date, the spotty and limited international distribution that his work has received has largely been responsible for this impasse. And the incomplete grasp that I have of Olmi as an auteur is not only a consequence of this problem but, more symptomatically, part of the problem itself insofar as it has inhibited me from making further explorations. In other words, he has largely fallen outside most international canons precisely because his work has resisted easy classification.

Olmi’s style is frequently described as simple, but once any attempt is made to elaborate on this observation, this alleged simplicity often turns out to be far from simple — perhaps because Olmi’s responses to his material usually turn out to be less pure than we initially assume them to be, and more intuitively open to chance, circumstance, and/or expressive variations than criticism often cares to admit. Consider, for instance, the brief sequence in Il posto (1961) that follows Domenico (Sandro Panseri) on his way home from Milan following a day devoted to his job application, during which he meets Magali (Loredana Detto), another applicant for a job at the same company. If we compare this sequence to Domenico’s walk to the train station from his home the previous morning, the differences are quite striking.

We see him leave his family’s third-story apartment with his brother Franco while their mother calls out questions to him about whether he has enough money. As we view them walking on the road in extended long shots (during which Franco gets called back to collect more money from his mother to give to Domenico), what we hear, such as the voices of Domenico and his mother and the passing traffic, appears to be recorded in direct sound. But that evening, after Domenico sees Magali depart on a bus, there’s a cut to him walking through an apparently empty train, singing to himself, as seen from outside the train and through its windows, and the fact that we can clearly hear him singing despite the camera’s position outside the train essentially proves that the sound in this sequence couldn’t be direct. Moreover, after Domenico sits down in the train, the film cuts to various shots of the train as seen from the platform that seem to reflect Domenico’s viewpoint even though the camera’s placement is anything but subjective. And meanwhile, the sound of Domenico’s singing becomes much louder and more assertive as we cut to him walking home from the train station; when we see him outside the door of his family’s apartment, the fact that this isn’t direct sound becomes confirmed by the imprecise lip sync. (We do know, however, from Olmi’s own testimony that Sandro Panseri dubbed his own character, and that he systematically got his nonprofessional actors to dub their own roles.)

We might conclude from the contrasts in both image and sound between Domenico’s walk from the train station in the morning and his walk back from the train station in the evening that the difference in approach from a relative objectivity to a relative subjectivity helps to illustrate a certain psychological observation — namely, the boost in Domenico’s confidence which comes from having completed his job application and, perhaps even more, from having met Magali, which is only intensified once he returns to his home turf and shows that he can sing more openly there without any embarrassment. But in fact, neither the objectivity in the first sequence nor the subjectivity in the second sequence qualifies as pure; both are highly selective in what Olmi wants us to see and hear. And the differences may also be a matter of technical expedience. When Olmi spoke to the late American film critic Charles Thomas Samuels in Rome in Spring 1971, he described his overall methodology and rationale as follows:

I’m not so doctrinaire as Bresson. Since the visual element

is the most important thing in a film, dubbing isn’t too

harmful. Furthermore, one touches up the visuals; why

shouldn’t one also touch up the sound track? However, I do

try to take sound directly whenever that is possible. But when

I shoot in 35 mm, I can only take the sound directly when I

am not using a hand-held camera, because obviously I

couldn’t find a machine small enough that would also record

sound. When I need to be free of trolleys and so on, I dub. (2)

The fact that Olmi most often shoots as well as edits his own films clearly gives them an artisanal quality that arguably becomes part of his films’ content. “The talkies have become the walkies,” Dwight Macdonald once wittily observed, while favorably reviewing Il posto in the August 1963 issue of Esquire, calling to mind the extent to which long walks often define as well as shape much of the Italian art cinema of this period — not only Il posto and I fidanzati (1963), but also, for instance, all of the films of Antonioni that were contemporary with them (L’avventura, La notte, L’eclisse, and Il deserto rosso). The nature of Olmi’s observations, reflected in both his shooting style and in his principles of sound-mixing (including his uses of music), tends to be psychologically as well as socially oriented.

In the interview with Olmi included on Criterion’s 2003 DVD release of Il posto, he gives an interesting rationale for his periodic inclusion of the sound of church bells during Domenico’s walks through Milan. While most viewers would take them to be both realistic and nonconsequential, his description implies that they carry a certain commentary on the action that becomes part of the film’s overall social statement, while his comparison of these bells to the sound of a mother’s voice provocatively suggests a certain psychological dimension as well: “Why did I put in the bells? They come from a more rural, agricultural world where they marked the significant times of the day — a way of communicating with the rest of the community ….[They represent] an old world that will soon be gone.”

It’s worth adding that the periodic sound of church bells in L’albero degli zoccoli (1978), which is probably Olmi’s major representation of that “old world,” while apparently more realistic and directly pertinent, appears at times to be used almost as intuitively and as expressively as it is in Il posto. Indeed, it has a similar kind of subliminal, psychological effect in creating the film’s world — Lombardy at the end of the nineteenth century — as the recurring frontal camera angle in front of the huge farmhouse where most of the action is set, which often suggests the theatrical tableau framing of some of the earliest films, which were being shot at approximately the same time, and conveys cumulatively a certain rhyme effect that links particular scenes thematically and emotionally. (The recurrence of the same camera angles in the same settings, in this case many years apart, also informs much of the dramatic construction of Mizoguchi’s 1939 masterpiece The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums, invariably leading us to recall earlier scenes and sequences while creating a certain overall sense of permanence that plays in counterpoint to seasonal and other temporal changes.)

The opening sequence of I fidanzati also uses sound at least partially in a manner that seems to be psychologically motivated. After Olmi slowly and methodically presents us with the routine, almost ritualistic opening in the evening of a dance hall that establishes the milieu and his leading characters, he presents a series of brief flashbacks in alternation within this setting that is quite unorthodox in terms of both their chronology and their succession (we even get one flashback within another flashback), All of this is clearly marked as the hero’s subjective memories that are being propelled by the music, which is kept at the same volume level in the dance hall and in the other settings of the diverse flashbacks. When Samuels interviewed Olmi, there is a meaningful and interesting exchange on this topic. Samuels: “Why are you so fond of sound bridges from one scene to another?” Olmi: “To show that the psychological state remains even though outward reality changes.” (3)

Another example of Olmi’s expressive use of sound volume comes a little later in I fidanzati. Shortly after the hero, Giovanni ((Carlo Cabrini), has flown to Sicily to embark on his new job and has found temporary lodging, he wanders into a drab, nearly deserted, but brightly lit where a radio is loudly blasting incongruously cheerful music. The sharp disconnect here between sound and image perfectly captures the alienation and displacement being experienced by Giovanni.

Perhaps one could find no better illustration of Olmi’s capacity to lend psychological and social significance to his sounds than the loud and relentless sound of a copying machine that accompanies both the final shots and then the closing credits of Il posto, which is again held at the same volume level. As in the earlier sequence that cuts away from Domenico at work to see depressing glimpses of his older colleagues at home, the present is metaphorically expanded to represent both the future and the shape of entire lives, thus making each character, in effect, a “copy” of the others that has been pressed out by the drudgery and monotony of work.

We tend to associate the Nouvelle Vague with both youth and various stylistic departures such as those that I’ve just been describing. In fact, the term itself was originally coined by the weekly magazine L’Express, in its October 3, 1957 issue, in reference to youth rather than to film per se, and it’s worth recalling that Olmi’s worldwide reputation only came with his second feature, Il posto, when he was already pushing thirty. (Regrettably, I haven’t seen his first feature, Il tempo si è fermato [1959], so I can’t discuss it here in any detail.) And his status as a stylistic innovator, which relates chiefly to his early features, seems determined and inflected most of all by his concern with content rather than any apparent desire to shake up film aesthetics; it was apparently arrived at more by default than by design. This content, moreover, might be described as a particular kind of speculative autobiography — that is, stories and situations based to some extent (and by his own testimony) on Olmi’s own experiences, which are seemingly combined with some speculation about how his life might have developed if he hadn’t become a filmmaker. Similarly, L’albero degli zoccoli might be described as a speculative account of his grandparents’ life around the turn of the century. In the case of The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988), the only other Olmi feature that I’ve seen, it could describe this literary adaptation as a form of speculative spiritual autobiography — precipitated in this case by his contraction of a rare and crippling neurological disease that interrupted Olmi’s career between 1984 and 1987, and, by his own account, obliged him to anticipate and contemplate the prospect of his own death.

“I discovered my first subjects in myself,” Olmi said Samuels. “For example, the boy in [Il posto] is me; the worker who goes to Sicily in [I fidanzati] is also me. The young boy in my first film, [Il tempo si è fermato], is certainly me. Each film, except, obviously, [E venne un uomo], was about me — until [Un certo giorno].” (4) This autobiographical content covers the period when Olmi was working as a clerk for the Edisonvolta electric plant in Milan — a period during which Olmi first became involved with filmmaking, by shooting various industrial documentaries for the company, one of which surreptitiously grew into Il tempo si è fermato — although presumably the filmmaking itself is a subject that Olmi’s early features fail to deal with.

Critical typecasting inevitably stems from a desire for simplification, but more often than not this is a sort of practice that can lead to various distortions. Several years ago, when I was still working as a regular film reviewer for the Chicago Reader, I received an e-mail one day from a reader wishing to know how I could have possibly described The Tree of Wooden Clogs as Marxist when it was so clearly a religious ﬁlm. In fact, it had been Dave Kehr, my predecessor, who had written the Chicago Reader’s capsule review of Ermanno Olmi’s feature back in 1985, two years before I’d started work on that newspaper, and the way he had employed the term “Marxist” is not something I would have agreed with myself: “The characters and situations are oppressively familiar; Olmi’s wide-eyed, wondering point of view helps to freshen them, but not enough to overcome completely the Marxist sentimentalism inherent in the concept.”

Nevertheless, under these circumstances, going into my disagreement with Kehr might have only led to more confusion, so adopting the usual reflexes of a journalist wishing to simplify issues rather than complicate them, I hastily e-mailed my correspondent that any Italian would tell you that Marxism could easily be seen as a form of religion. Afterwards, I realized that this response was unnecessarily ﬂippant and in its own way misleading—a prime instance of one form of simplification being used to “correct” another one. On further reflection, I concluded that it would have been better to say that Catholicism and Marxism have had a long and complex coexistence in Italy, and it was unrealistic to expect that they would be mutually exclusive as systems of belief; the complex and multifaceted career of Pier Paolo Pasolini stands as proof of how intimately the two can be intertwined, regardless of—or perhaps even because of — the various contradictions involved. This led me to think about how the similar characterizations of European Marxism in the United States tend to foster such confusion; indeed, it is even possible to argue that the term “Marxism” doesn’t even mean the same thing in the U.S. and Europe. Shortly after this, I happened to read André Bazin’s description of The Bicycle Thief as one of the great Communist ﬁlms — an aspect of the ﬁlm that I strongly suspect couldn’t have been apparent to American audiences when it won the Academy Award for best foreign ﬁlm in 1949. And still more recently, after reseeing The Tree of Wooden Clogs and Olmi’s much earlier Il posto and I fidanzati, I realized that calling Olmi a Marxist in the same sense that Pasolini was one was already an over-simplification that can perhaps only be justified from a distant and American Cold War perspective (and one that unhappily persists today), according to which almost any leftist-humanist European position can be — and often is — perceived as Marxist.

Typically, film directors become familiar to the public through various forms of critical packaging, and the difficulty in situating Olmi comfortably within the traditions of either Italian Neorealism or the Nouvelle Vague have led to a blurry and uncertain critical profile that has only become more confused over time. His film career began in the shadow of what might be described as post-Italian-Neorealism — especially in his reliance on shooting in natural locations, but also in going further in Neorealism’s move away from the conventions of studio filmmaking by adopting the same procedure employed in Banditi a Orgosolo and Accatone (the first features of Vittorio De Seta and Pier Paolo Pasolini, both released in 1961, the same year as Il posto), to use only nonprofessional actors. And the use of both natural locations and nonprofessional actors in his subsequent and comparably well-known I fidanzati (1963) and L’albero degli zoccoli (1978) would appear to confirm that these characteristics were essential parts of his auteurist profile, to which one should add the aforementioned autobiographical elements.

Furthermore, the location shooting and some of the editing procedures of Il posto and I fidanzati, in addition to some of the autobiographical, psychological, and sociological elements and the uses of direct sound, parallel those associated with some of the French filmmakers of the Nouvelle Vague — in particular, Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard regarding the autobiographical elements, Godard regarding the sociological elements, Resnais regarding the psychological elements, and Godard and Rivette in the employments of direct sound. (Unless one counts Vivre sa vie in 1962, Godard’s uses of direct sound and his sociological interests as exemplified in La femme mariée and Masculin féminine suggests that I fidanzati might conceivably have influenced Godard, but it appears less likely that Godard influenced Olmi.)

Yet how, then, can one account for Olmi’s 1988 The Legend of the Holy Drinker – one of his most famous and celebrated subsequent films, and apparently another personal project, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival? This latter film not only employs many professional actors and is largely studio-shot; it’s also a close literary adaptation of a novel in German whose spoken dialogue is chiefly in English and secondarily in French, and it appears to have no direct autobiographical elements in relation to Olmi (although it does seem to have a few in relation to Joseph Roth, who wrote the story of the same title serving as the literary source). And even though the frequent use of sets appears to preclude the sort of direct sound employed in Il posto, I fidanzati, and L’albero degli zoccoli, one can none the less observe aspects of Olmi’s expressive sound mixing, such as the way certain sounds precede their corresponding images (e.g,, those of the Seine, which come before the film’s opening shot), that seem consistent with those in the earlier features. (Equally consistent, alas, is the relatively conventional selection of musical pieces chosen as accompaniments, such as the Bach used in L’albero degli zoccoli and the Stravinsky used in The Legend of the Holy Drinker — not to mention the pop music used in Il posto and I fidanzati.)

Olmi, who has usually avoided literary adaptations, agreed to make this movie of the Roth

story only after his friend and frequent writing collaborator Tullio Kezich (1928-2009)

presented him with a copy of this story at a dinner party. According to Michael Hofmann,

the English translator of the story, it was written “quite deliberately” as well as slowly, as

Joseph Roth’s final work of fiction while he was in the process of drinking himself to death

in Paris at age 44 (5). Like Ulrike Ottinger’s Bildnis Einer Trinkerin (aka Aller Jamais Retour/

Ticket of No Return, 1979), which deals with a similar theme, Roth’s story is paradoxically

a work of ironic celebration more than one of complaint or defeat, although the irony is

far less apparent in the fate of Andreas Kartak (Rutger Hauer) in Olmi’s version. As the

British film critic Tom Milne pointed out in his review of the film, it is a very close and

superficially very faithful adaptation, ending with the same epitaph on the death of

Andreas –“May God grant us all, all of us drinkers, such a good and easy death” —

yet “the explicit irony of Roth’s personal voice, interjecting as narrator to cast cold water

over [the] Biblical resonances, has been suppressed.” (6) And indeed, as Olmi admitted to

Don Ranvaud in an interview (see footnote 1), he deliberately avoided reading anything else

by Roth or anything about his life before making the film: “He [Roth] became a perfect and

discreet accomplice, perhaps not dissimilar from the stranger/benefactor in the story.”

One could hypothesize that, apart from Olmi’s near-brush with death, the element

in Roth’s strange story that struck a personal chord with Olmi may well have been

the almost obsessive recurrence of the word “miracle”. For it would appear that the

notion of miracles as responses to prayers has a very special meaning for this

filmmaker, which can be seen not only in the seemingly miraculous recovery of

the sick cow in L’albero degli zoccoli, but also in Olmi’s own remarkable account of

the arrival of the rainstorm in the final scene of I fidanzati:

You must remember that in Sicily it never rains during August and September. You shouldn’t tell anyone this story, because he will laugh at me! It exemplifies the mentality of a Catholic and a peasant. Here I was, needing a storm when there couldn’t be any, so I started up an internal dialogue with my grandmother, who was no longer alive then. I kept praying for her to help me, and I went slowly on the retakes in the hope that she would. One day that oppressive Sicilian heat was so dreadful that no one could sleep, so we worked through the night. When I finally got to sleep, I had this crazy dream: I was shooting my last scene in a downpour so terrific that it was actually painful; even the trees were bending under it. I went on filming, while my grandmother looked on, happy and satisfied. Imagine how I felt when I awoke from that vivid dream to see an utterly clear sky. Nevertheless, I told everyone to get ready for work because it would rain that day. They looked at me as if I were crazy….But by afternoon a storm came. Suddenly I found myself exactly as I had been in the dream, shooting in a downpour, with trees swaying all around me. […] (7)

Clearly we have to revise some of our presuppositions about what defines

Olmi from an auteurist perspective if we wish to consider The Legend of

the Holy Drinker as a meaningful part of his oeuvre. But in the process of this

revision, we may also need to reconsider, once again, what we mean by both

Italian Neorealism and the Nouvelle Vague. For insofar as both these

movements were very much collective phenomena — the result of friends

having coffee and conversing and working together over protracted periods

— Olmi needs to be considered separately insofar as he remains a relatively

independent loner, creating and following his own laws. (One should note,

however, that at least two of his children have also entered the world of

cinema — Fabio as a cinematographer and Elisabetta as a producer). In this

respect, he may be more comparable to notable outsiders in the French

cinema, such as Bresson and Jacques Tati, than he is to filmmakers

associated with either post-Italian-Neorealism or the Nouvelle Vague.

Like Bresson, he projects a spiritual sense of gravity over his plots,

especially when he expands his expressive palette to suggest cosmic

dimensions, yet like Tati he is also a master of “small” social observations

(Domenico and Magali each examining the bottoms of their coffee cups in

an attempt to behave “typically” in a Milan café is a classic Tatiesque moment.)

Logically speaking, one can’t postulate a tradition of eccentricity in any field of

endeavor without perpetrating an oxymoron. But in attempting to describe as well

as account for the eccentric styles, methods, and techniques of Il posto and I

fidanzati, we can at least speak about a few tendencies that can be found in

several other idiosyncratic “outsider” artists apart from Bresson and Tati.

One of these tendencies would be the reinvention of many of the basic

practices and poetic principles of their specific art forms that is found in

artists with rustic and/or small-town backgrounds, such as French painter

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), Ukrainian filmmaker Alexander Dovzhenko

(1894-1956), American novelist William Faulkner (1897-1962), American

filmmaker Jonas Mekas (born 1922), American filmmaker David Lynch

(born 1946), and Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (born 1970), among

others—some of whom, like Olmi, might be said to invent their own forms

of syntax.

Another tendency, much less common, would be for the artist to remain

in his or her home town or at least outside the main centers of culture

and communication (i.e., in Faulkner’s case, outside of New York; in

Olmi’s case, outside of Rome), which typically results in both a delay

in public recognition and remaining relatively unfashionable. In Olmi’s

case, it’s worth pointing out that after Il posto opened in Paris somewhat

belatedly, it tied with Nico Papatakis’ Les Abysees for 25th place in Cahiers

du Cinéma’s list of the best films of 1963, and I fidanzati did only slightly

better the following year, winding up in 17th place — just behind Raoul Walsh’s

A Distant Trumpet and just ahead of Mark Donskoi’s Thomas Gordeyev.

(Uncharacteristically, however, and quite surprisingly, I fidanzati also occupied

first place in Jean-Luc Godard’s personal list of favorite films for that same year,

1964 — just ahead of Gertrud, Marnie, Man’s Favorite Sport, and Il deserto rosso,

in descending order—which is partially why I have hypothesized the possibility

of this film exerting an influence on Godard.)

One final tendency to note that’s relevant to Olmi would be the relatively late start

of some artists in discovering and/or practicing their particular art forms; restricting

ourselves now only to filmmakers, we might think of D.W. Griffith, 1875-1948, who

began making films in 1907; Robert Bresson, 1901-1999, who made his first short

film in 1934 and his first feature in 1943; Jacques Tati, 1907-1982, who made his

first feature in 1947; Nicholas Ray, 1911-1979, who made his first feature in

1947, and Samuel Fuller, 1912-1997, who made his first feature in 1949.

Olmi, to be sure, made his first documentary shorts in his early 20s, but it

also seems relevant that he only turned to fiction and feature filmmaking

in his late 20s. As with Griffith, Bresson, Tati, Ray, and Fuller — a very prestigious

and varied honor roll — it would be fair to say that Olmi’s early features clearly

reflect, and to their own advantage, the life experience of someone who has lived

for many years outside the world of cinema. This remains an essential part of their

mystery and their uncommon power.

End Notes

“A Discreet Accomplice: Ermanno Olmi” by Don Ranvaud, Monthly Film Bulletin, Vol. 55, No. 657, October 1988, 316 (back cover).
Samuels, Charles Thomas, Encountering Directors, New York: Da Capo, 1987 (second edition), 101.
Ibid., 112.
Ibid., 100.
Translator’s Note, Right and Left/The Legend of the Holy Drinker, Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1992, 289-291.

6. Monthly Film Bulletin, Vol. 56, No. 668, September 1989, 277-278.

7. Samuels, Charles Thomas, op. cit., 109-110.

Published on 07 Jun 2012 in Notes, by jrosenbaum

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