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Before My Eyes: Film Criticism and Comment
Film reviews covering the years 1974 through 1979 and essays dealing with classic films, books on film, Charlie Chaplin, and John Gielgud confirm Kauffmann's status as one of the best film reviewers and critics
- GenresFilm
464 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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December 6, 2024
Films from 1974 to 1980. Unlike Kael, Kauffmann's books don't have hard stops. So, you get films from 1974 in both this book and his last one.
Here Kauffmann plays the cranky contrarian. Barry Lyndon, Rocky, Godfather II, Star Wars, Apocolypse now, Love and Death, Young Frankenstein, Family Plot, Jaws - all get trashed or sneered at. Or analyzed in a patronizing manner. With some mediocre films, Kauffmann turns vicious: Who'll stop the Rain based on Stone's novel "Dog Soldiers" is denounced as a movie about "sewer people".
Kauffmann also dislikes most of the actors and directors. A review of Family Plot is used to attack Hitchcock. Every Altman film is criticized and Altman is berated as a "middle-class mind, with Middle-class values, and a Middle-range talent". Paul Newman is called out for coasting on this laurels. Martin sheen has "the charisma of a filling station attendent".
The only exception is Spelberg. After calling him a "hack" for making Jaws. Speilberg's next film: Close Encounters is praised to the skies in a six page review with kauffmann quoting Henry Adams! He even calls it the "pinnacle of SF film". and a "Triumph of Faith". LOL.
Representative quote (from his review of Interiors): "Much has been made of the fact that Allen has moved from a Jewish worldview to a Gentile one. I deplore this too, because I sense the Arthur Miller Syndrome: if you are Jew and you want to write on large Tragic matters, you must use Gentile characters to get univerality. Allen's characters are not like those in "Death of a Salesman" feebly disguised Jews, but they are abstracts, conjectures, with nothing of the reality of that say, Gentile Annie Hall had, when seen through avowedly Jewish eyes."
Here Kauffmann plays the cranky contrarian. Barry Lyndon, Rocky, Godfather II, Star Wars, Apocolypse now, Love and Death, Young Frankenstein, Family Plot, Jaws - all get trashed or sneered at. Or analyzed in a patronizing manner. With some mediocre films, Kauffmann turns vicious: Who'll stop the Rain based on Stone's novel "Dog Soldiers" is denounced as a movie about "sewer people".
Kauffmann also dislikes most of the actors and directors. A review of Family Plot is used to attack Hitchcock. Every Altman film is criticized and Altman is berated as a "middle-class mind, with Middle-class values, and a Middle-range talent". Paul Newman is called out for coasting on this laurels. Martin sheen has "the charisma of a filling station attendent".
The only exception is Spelberg. After calling him a "hack" for making Jaws. Speilberg's next film: Close Encounters is praised to the skies in a six page review with kauffmann quoting Henry Adams! He even calls it the "pinnacle of SF film". and a "Triumph of Faith". LOL.
Representative quote (from his review of Interiors): "Much has been made of the fact that Allen has moved from a Jewish worldview to a Gentile one. I deplore this too, because I sense the Arthur Miller Syndrome: if you are Jew and you want to write on large Tragic matters, you must use Gentile characters to get univerality. Allen's characters are not like those in "Death of a Salesman" feebly disguised Jews, but they are abstracts, conjectures, with nothing of the reality of that say, Gentile Annie Hall had, when seen through avowedly Jewish eyes."
Displaying 1 of 1 review