Borges in/and/on Film

by Jorge Luis Borges, Edgardo Cozarinsky (Editor), Gloria Waldman (Translator)

The definitive edition of this celebrated collection of Borges 1930 s and 40s film reviews, complemented by Cozarinsky's "excellent introduction" ( Sight and Sound ) as well as his critical studies of eight film adaptations of Borges's work. "Borges's view of film as a story-telling mechanism is a necessary corrective..."--Andrew Sarris

Genres: Film, Media Tie In, Spanish Literature

117 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five stars I gave this book would be downright puzzling to someone who is not a devotee of Jorge Luis Borges. For me, who has everything by Borges that has been translated into English, it adds some interesting sidelights to one of the greatest literary careers of the 20th Century. As the title Borges in/and/on Film indicates, the author, Edgardo Cozarinsky, has collected film reviews by Borges, film criticism -- mostly French -- that was influenced by Borges, and a survey of films based on Borges stories or scripts.

[GloriaGloom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Può apparire paradossale associare Borges all'atto della visione di alcunché, e immagino sia paradosso cercato dai curatori di questa scelta di articoli di critica cinematografica redatti dal Borges giovane e vedente per la rivista Sur, educata ironia nei confronti di chi della grande serietà insita nel pardossale e nel fittizio fece poetica e ragionamento assieme. O forse non è paradossale per niente e sono io ad associare crudelmente Borges e la cecità come caratteristica primaria (Non me ne vogliano i talebani Borgesiani ma se penso a Borges, chiudendo gli occhi, vedo quei personaggi da fumetto che fanno la questua con il cartello "cieco" intorno al collo ma che in realtà ben vedono e ben colgono l'entità di quanto viene depositato a terra nel cencioso cappello e per estensione fumettara l'associo al mitico Numero 1 di Alan Ford, il millenario paralitico manovratore in ombra dello scalcagnato gruppo TNT, quando millanta le sue giovanili frequantazioni con Giulio Cesare, Cristoforo Colombo, Omero e tanti altri rileggendo la Storia come intreccio di bizzarria e cospirazione dettato da chi quella storia racconta per l'attonito auditorio che sia formato da Alan Ford, la Ceariatide, il Conte, Bob Rock oppure ogni lettore di Borges od ogni lettore in toto che da solo non saprebbe neppure allacciarsi le scarpe anche se mai lo ammetteremmo). Borges al cinema, inteso come spettatore e critico, sembra soffrire non poco il corpo a corpo con un'arte popolare che è già stata riletta, rilavata e risciacquata alla fonte e che di per sé appare immunizzata all'invasione della cangiante lingua di Borges e ai suoi trabocchetti semantici. Sarebbe stato bello invece avere tra le mani una raccolta di visioni in età matura, quando proprio la cecità avrebbe potuto sostituire la visione con chissà quali Visioni celate a noi spettatori incoscienti del non essere in grado di allacciarci le scarpe.
Com'è insomma Borges al cinema? Come Borges allo stadio, Borges al supermercato, Borges al ristorante, Borges che si taglia le unghie...

[Tyrone_Slothrop (ex-MB) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poche righe tra Borges e il cinema

Non bastano alcune salaci e forti recensioni di Borges apparse negli anni '30 per giustificare questo libro - troppo diverso e eterogeneo il materiale presentato, composto di alcune pagine dedicate a qualche film dal grande argentino e di molte altre dedicate a varie titolo al suo rapporto con il cinema. Vale la pena forse leggerlo solo per la recensione dedicata a "Quarto Potere" di Welles, dove poche parole bastano per comunicare la grandezza di questa opera.

[Rufussenex · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this -"Borges on Film" - is brilliant; film reviews that Borges made in Buenos Aires for SUR magazine in the 30s and 40s. God, I could quote passages from these reviews like scripture! Trenchant, perverse, witty and joyously opinionated, they aren't so much reviews as ruminations by an artist and intellectual who is obviously passionate about film. The second half - "Film on Borges" - is interesting, but feels perfunctory by comparison.

[August · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting for any Borges fans.

[Srikanth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notwithstanding a handful of interesting passages to quote from, Borges film reviews are no great shakes, if not downright objectionable. In fact, his is the kind of attitude to cinema that so many film critics and theoreticians actively rescued cinema from: Soviet cinema, we are told, lacks characters. Man of Aran is a mere collection of images. A particular film is so bad it deserves the signature of Rene Clair. A good example of the way great artists in one medium are absolutely blind to the workings of another.

On the other hand, what's interesting about the book is editor Edgardo Cozarinsky's own erudite, insightful film criticism. Read his essay on The Spider's Stratagem or Invasion to see the kind of close engagement with cinema that Borges's own writing lacks.

PS: Borges would have adored the films of Christopher Nolan, who has acknowledged his admiration for the writer (Nolan also being the name of a character in one of his short stories).

[Juan Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al margen de la literatura, ningún otro arte ejerció semejante fascinación en Jorge Luis Borges como el cine: firmó una profusa colección de ingeniosas reseñas. Veía en las películas del Viejo Oeste y de las pandillas neoyorkinas una posibilidad para el olvidado ejercicio de la épica.