What do you think?
Rate this book
Slow Writing: Thom Andersen on Cinema
SLOW WRITING is a collection of articles by Thom Andersen that reflect on the avant-garde, Hollywood feature films, and contemporary cinema. His critiques of artists and filmmakers as diverse as Yasujirō Ozu, Nicholas Ray, Andy Warhol, and Christian Marclay locate their work within the broader spheres of popular culture, politics, history, architecture, and the urban landscape. The city of Los Angeles and its relationship to film is a recurrent theme. These writings, which span a period of five decades, demonstrate Andersen’s social consciousness, humour and his genuine appreciation of cinema in its many forms.
Thom Andersen’s films include the celebrated documentary essays "Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer" (1975), "Los Angeles Plays Itself" (2003), and "The Thoughts That Once We Had" (2015). Together with Noël Burch, he produced primary studies of the Hollywood Blacklist in the form of the book "Les communistes de Autre chose que des martyrs" (1994) and film "Red Hollywood" (1996).
“There are few writers and few filmmakers who make me rethink what cinema is more than Thom Andersen. Sometimes this is a matter of introducing fresh perspectives, such as making cinema and architecture more mutually interactive. It’s always a political matter of figuring out just who and where we are, and why.” (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
“In his disarmingly plainspoken introduction, Thom Andersen more or less apologizes for not becoming a film critic, and for not delivering a manifesto. SLOW WRITING show us just how terrific a critic he hasn’t (mostly) bothered to be. This book belongs on a very small and special shelf of the most incisive and ungrandiose books by artists.” (Jonathan Lethem)
Thom Andersen’s films include the celebrated documentary essays "Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer" (1975), "Los Angeles Plays Itself" (2003), and "The Thoughts That Once We Had" (2015). Together with Noël Burch, he produced primary studies of the Hollywood Blacklist in the form of the book "Les communistes de Autre chose que des martyrs" (1994) and film "Red Hollywood" (1996).
“There are few writers and few filmmakers who make me rethink what cinema is more than Thom Andersen. Sometimes this is a matter of introducing fresh perspectives, such as making cinema and architecture more mutually interactive. It’s always a political matter of figuring out just who and where we are, and why.” (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
“In his disarmingly plainspoken introduction, Thom Andersen more or less apologizes for not becoming a film critic, and for not delivering a manifesto. SLOW WRITING show us just how terrific a critic he hasn’t (mostly) bothered to be. This book belongs on a very small and special shelf of the most incisive and ungrandiose books by artists.” (Jonathan Lethem)
- GenresFilm
304 pages, Hardcover
Published September 11, 2017
132 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 23, 2017
In the 1960s there were a lot of great 'film' related books that speak to the fan of the medium, but also express a viewpoint of the world as well. Thom Andersen's "Slow Writing" reflects that series of perfect moments when I used to haunt the bookshelves at Samuel French and Larry Edmunds bookstore in Hollywood.
Cinema was not separated from 'real' life - even Hollywood had to reflect on the outside world once in awhile. For me, and this is entirely a subjective view there is two type of fans of cinema. The one that gets into the merchandising and the inner world of that medium - mostly the comic.com generation, that offers a peculiar view of the world that is half-made up and almost have a will of steel in bringing that world up in their everyday lives. And then there is the cinema that reflects on the politics, the concerns, and the nature of being human in a world that's often unsettling. These two sometimes go hand-in-hand, or more likely take two separate highways to get to their destination. "Slow Writing" is a book that reflects on the 'outside' world but through the medium of the cinema. It's a fantastic series of essays focusing on Ozu to Christian Marclay, Warhol, and for me an obscure filmmaker Pedro Costa.
Thom Andersen writes clearly and doesn't have the slightest whiff of academia confusion or stance. He's a guy who goes to the movies and thinks about them afterward. His interest in politics, film noir, and the Hollywood Red scare era is a toxic seduction to get the reader involved with 20th-century pop cultural history. It is also a world that bites very hard and doesn't let go of its fans or those who dwell in the history of the urban landscape - especially Los Angeles in this case. "Slow Writing" is a perfectly paced book. The essays blend into the others as if one is bathing in its water. Over the years I have read great books on film, and "Slow Writing" is without a doubt a classic volume on the subject matter, as well as commentary on Los Angeles seen through the medium of film, and how that reflects on the actual world, that most of us dwell in.
Also, praise to The Visible Press for making a beautiful book to behold and treasure. It's elegant, which is also very much like Thom Andersen and his writing.
Cinema was not separated from 'real' life - even Hollywood had to reflect on the outside world once in awhile. For me, and this is entirely a subjective view there is two type of fans of cinema. The one that gets into the merchandising and the inner world of that medium - mostly the comic.com generation, that offers a peculiar view of the world that is half-made up and almost have a will of steel in bringing that world up in their everyday lives. And then there is the cinema that reflects on the politics, the concerns, and the nature of being human in a world that's often unsettling. These two sometimes go hand-in-hand, or more likely take two separate highways to get to their destination. "Slow Writing" is a book that reflects on the 'outside' world but through the medium of the cinema. It's a fantastic series of essays focusing on Ozu to Christian Marclay, Warhol, and for me an obscure filmmaker Pedro Costa.
Thom Andersen writes clearly and doesn't have the slightest whiff of academia confusion or stance. He's a guy who goes to the movies and thinks about them afterward. His interest in politics, film noir, and the Hollywood Red scare era is a toxic seduction to get the reader involved with 20th-century pop cultural history. It is also a world that bites very hard and doesn't let go of its fans or those who dwell in the history of the urban landscape - especially Los Angeles in this case. "Slow Writing" is a perfectly paced book. The essays blend into the others as if one is bathing in its water. Over the years I have read great books on film, and "Slow Writing" is without a doubt a classic volume on the subject matter, as well as commentary on Los Angeles seen through the medium of film, and how that reflects on the actual world, that most of us dwell in.
Also, praise to The Visible Press for making a beautiful book to behold and treasure. It's elegant, which is also very much like Thom Andersen and his writing.
January 2, 2019
“We don’t need more masterpieces. We need work that is useful and work that is modest. We need work that acknowledges what we know but don’t believe. We need true and valid images in which we can recognize the world and its beauty; images that teach us about ourselves and our world. Not just an image, but an image that is just, to paraphrase Godard. Such work exists, and it demands of us who write about cinema our attention and our unyielding support.“—Thom Andersen, from Introduction to Slow Writing
December 30, 2024
Thom Andersen is a unique voice in film criticism that tries to play to the outskirts of the medium. Concerned with Warhol and other avant-garde pursuits he likes to see where the medium can be pushed. At times it does rely a bit too much on these fringes and I did watch a lot of shorts mentioned just to keep up with the themes in the essays but as a whole there is some neat nuggets of thought that is mainly concerned with giving film back to people instead of studios. The Tex Avery/Ronald Regan one was my favorite.
Read
February 22, 2018791 A5449 2017
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews