Andrew Sarris RIP

But Andy and Molly two of my favorites. Hoberman too, despite what Andy said about him.

Hopefully I can listen to this on the way home.

Think they referred to Emanuel Levy as Eugene Levy.

This podcast is pretty nice, thanks for the reminder.

None of Andy's books in electronic format although there is this Village Voice Film Guide.

Cinephiliac website has some good related links.

Second half of podcast is really good.

Didn't know he and Molly met at a screening of Scorpio Rising.

Nor I.

Glad to hear that even he was occasionally infuriated by his own prose style.

I liked David Schwarz's Greek restaurant anecdote. Also kinda stopped in my tracks by Labuza referring to Sl4nt as an auteurist "institution."

Check the horror poll results there again.

re: "institutions," anything that's around for more than 5 years these days is an institution

speaking of which, there's a 35mm print of In the Mouth of Madness playing in Brooklyn tonight. After Dangerous Game. xp

Chuckled when Schwarz said, "Sarris was never one of these 'Brian de Palma can do no wrong' critics..."

In the wake of Redacted, who is?

well, woulda been a test for Kael.

I would be infuriated by my prose style if I had one.

btw Molly has a new book, and it's not criticism.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/05/living/qa-molly-haskell-my-brother-my-sister/index.html

Will read that after I finish the memoir about Andrew's sickness.

I was checking to see if he'd reviewed a certain despised film (he had), and his Observer archive is still online:

https://observer.com/author/andrew-sarris/

Can't tell if you need an account or not; two reviews I accessed, in between I was asked to sign in.

Scrolling back through this thread, I posted a link to Stanley Kauffmann's short obituary. Surprised that it's still online. I figure it won't be there forever--not like ILX--so I'll cut and paste it here:

For Andrew Sarris, a farewell of respect. He was the contemporary film critic with whom I disagreed most often, yet he was the critic from whom I learned most.

His passing prompts a look at the changes that he brought about with his apostolic mission for the auteur theory--the belief, originating in France, that the primary point of film criticism should be the director’s work, not the subsequent or previous work of writers, designers, and so on. Cinema was to be judged cinematically. Like some others, I was unable to leave my opinions of the writing and characterization and drama at the door of the screening room, but Andrew’s insistence convinced me early on that I needed at least to expand my concerns cinematically. I have always been grateful to him for it, and I think there were others who learned from him and owed him that debt.

When the news of his death spread, I thought I heard a sigh at the loss of something virtually unique, something that was for me at least more considerable than the auteur theory--Andrew’s passion, fierce passion, for film. Others of us critics, fervent film-lovers indeed, could, if it were necessary, work on other subjects. Many of us did. If Andrew couldn’t have written about film, I think he would have been crushed. Happily, he was permitted to work where he belonged. That passion empowered him and helped many.

Nice, thanks!

i took his elective in college but i dunno i guess i have no real affinity for film. "rules of the game" -- idgi. i got a B- i think.

TSF, are you Bob Col4c3llo?

nope i am the guy in the columbia t-shirt pictured to the left of david johansen and identified in the caption.
https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19790322-01.2.13&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22first+appearance+of+a+name+performer%22------

i have consderably less hair now though.

Nice hat!

That's great--so wish I had taken a course with him. (I started in the fall of '79 at the University of Toronto--Joe Medjuck, future producer of Stripes and Ghostbuster, was as prestigious as my film professors got.) One Steven Buchman has a long review of The China Syndrome underneath your photo. I assume he also took some film courses, maybe under Sarris--wonder if he went into the industry.

There's something I really love about Kauffmann's obituary. Feels like a bygone era (which it is). They were as far apart as two film critics could be, but he writes this eloquent obituary that really gets at something irreplaceable about Sarris. Celebrity obituaries are a cottage industry now--I think bloggers have them on file like the New York Times--but I find that one moving.

thanks -- i think i nicked the hat from my dad.

there's some interesting ephemera if you search the columbia spetator archives for andrew sarris, including an issue he apparently edited in 1946.

Maybe J-Ho is still mad at Sarris's NYFCC bathroom break.

Joe Medjuck, future producer of Stripes and Ghostbuster

Before Ghostbusters, there was a little-known 1981 independent film called Ghostbuster; three-and-a-half hours chronicling the humdrum life of Bill Murray's character when he wasn't on duty.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53226a32e4b0a11842c6876f/1527981855725-A1SOKXMOC2AZMGB1YI59/1984-11-10-113.jpg
He was not even a real Ghostbuster!