The Movie That Changed My Life

by David Rosenberg (Editor)

Twenty-three writers discuss the films that most influenced them, and share the personal memories each film evokes

Genres: Film

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

David Rosenberg is an American poet, biblical translator, editor, and educator. He is best known for The Book of J (with Harold Bloom) and A Poet's Bible, which earned PEN Translation Prize in 1992. The Book of J stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for many weeks.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This concept--interviews with film directors about the one movie that changed their lives--is a very good idea for a book. Unfortunately, not all of these directors have produced interesting work themselves and not all who have produced good work have interesting things to say.

I liked the interviews with Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead") on "American Werewolf in London," Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko") on "Brazil," Peter Bogdanovitch on "Citizen Kane," John Dahl ("The Last Seduction") on "A Clockwork Orange," Henry Jaglom ("Someone to Love") on "8 1/2," Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side") on "The Exterminating Angel," Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter") on "Persona," John Woo on "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Mean Streets," John Landis on "the 7th Voyage of Sinbad," Kevin Smith on "Slacker" and John Waters on "The Wizard of Oz," but my favorite was Guy Maddin's ("The Saddest Music in the World") remarks on Bunuel's "L'Age D'Or," which contains a very illuminating discussion of surrealism and its relation to desire.

This however, only adds up to twelve interviews out of a total of thirty; the rest I could just as soon have skipped. Definitely worth a browse, though: give it a try.

[James S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less on "the movie" part and more on the "that changed my life" part, these essays are basically a series of memoirs about the various authors' childhoods. If you're looking for insights into film, look elsewhere, for not only is the focus not on the movies, the films these authors do pick to discuss are mostly obscure. Finally, a lot of these essays are terribly overwritten (for a sample, try to read Joyce Carol Oates's essay on "Dracula.")

[Mike Horne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fast read. Different directors talking about the movie that most influenced them. A couple of movies I have not seen and a couple of directors who I have not seen much from. Kevin Smith was influenced by Slacker (just watched it again) and Richard Linklater by Raging Bull (on my I-am-ashamed-to-admit-I-have-not-seen-it list). Frank Oz liked Touch of Evil and Jay Duplass liked Raising Arizona.

I would choose My Dinner with Andre. It turned me into a pretentious film snob--at the age of 18 or 19!

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great writers on their favourite films.