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Confessions of a Cultist: On the Cinema, 1955/1969
This book offers a chronicle of the cinema in one of the liveliest periods in its history by one of its liveliest interpreters who is the witty, iconoclastic critic of The Village Voice.
- GenresFilmNonfictionCriticism
Paperback
First published September 15, 1970
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About the author
Andrew Sarris
37 books29 followersMost famous for his 1962 essay "Notes on the Auteur theory" which popularized this film criticism technique in America. He wrote for the Village Voice criticing films and literature before bringing the Auteur theory from France to America and employing it in analysis of Hitchcock's film Psycho.
He wrote for The New York Observer until 2009 and was a professor at his alma mater, Columbia University where he taught courses on Internationl Film, Hitchcock, and American Cinema.
Trivia: The evil overlord from Galaxy Quest was named after him!
He wrote for The New York Observer until 2009 and was a professor at his alma mater, Columbia University where he taught courses on Internationl Film, Hitchcock, and American Cinema.
Trivia: The evil overlord from Galaxy Quest was named after him!
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 24, 2025
This Sarris collection of reviews from a vibrant decade, wherein he spotlights keen forn films, provides an interesting comparison w Pauline Kael. Both came from humble backgrounds, had sex hangups, and, like many journalists, were, at heart, provincials who longed to be sophisticates. As Sarris himself might write, "they had the sense, but lacked the sensibility," so only ended up with a smear of gloss.
Kael wanted to be The Center of Attention, any attention, even negative attention. She dared to be bitch-slapped. No one did until 1980 when Renata Adler took aim in the NYRB, calling her lewd and loud. (The 'butter' sequence in Last Tango had sent Kael into ecstatic grunts. She identified with Brando).
Sarris was always a Good Guy -- fair, temperate, humane, who stayed in his academic auteur box,* which Kael mocked. They differ on a lot of movies (he dismissed Hud, she liked Lolita), but the main difference is that Kael was a natural-born killer -- and a natural-born writer.
A most valued voice, Sarris easily falls into strangulating sentences like "the American cinema tends to be weaker in conception than execution, while the European cinema tends to be weaker in execution than conception." ( That is a meaningful meaningless line). He pivots on word-play/contradictions: Streisand is "more star quantity than star quality," Moreau "enthralls more than she enchants." Writing for The Village Voice, Sarris never had a real editor, so, midway through a review of The Ipcress File, he suddenly wanders into musings about the Tarzan series of the 30s.
Kael, an anti-auteurist, finds The Birds full of amusing/scary technique, though otherwise weak and awkward. A rigid Hitchcock auteurist (a "good" director can never make a "bad" film), Sarris hails this tech stunt as "a major work of cinematic art." Who would agree with this today? (He praised the mediocrity of Otto Preminger, who had a savvy NYC-pr office. Sarris was naive).
Still...Sarris can be admired. He reminds us that Belmondo is an original who went "international by staying national" (as did Bardot and other French actors who snubbed Hollywood, with good reason); Blake Edwards could be a "creative force" in LaLa (fat chance); Dirk Bogarde gives the performance of his life in the year's most exciting pic, Joseph Losey's The Servant; Geo Axelrod's Lord Love a Duck presents the best comic ensemble since the days of Preston Sturges; Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes is "one of the great films of the 60s."
Today's critics are publicists who dribble over aliens, robots, vampires, bugs -- Made in USA. Where else?
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*Update 7/3/2020
Sarris flaunts his homophobia in his 1966 review of "The Leather Boys."
See comment #17 below.
Kael wanted to be The Center of Attention, any attention, even negative attention. She dared to be bitch-slapped. No one did until 1980 when Renata Adler took aim in the NYRB, calling her lewd and loud. (The 'butter' sequence in Last Tango had sent Kael into ecstatic grunts. She identified with Brando).
Sarris was always a Good Guy -- fair, temperate, humane, who stayed in his academic auteur box,* which Kael mocked. They differ on a lot of movies (he dismissed Hud, she liked Lolita), but the main difference is that Kael was a natural-born killer -- and a natural-born writer.
A most valued voice, Sarris easily falls into strangulating sentences like "the American cinema tends to be weaker in conception than execution, while the European cinema tends to be weaker in execution than conception." ( That is a meaningful meaningless line). He pivots on word-play/contradictions: Streisand is "more star quantity than star quality," Moreau "enthralls more than she enchants." Writing for The Village Voice, Sarris never had a real editor, so, midway through a review of The Ipcress File, he suddenly wanders into musings about the Tarzan series of the 30s.
Kael, an anti-auteurist, finds The Birds full of amusing/scary technique, though otherwise weak and awkward. A rigid Hitchcock auteurist (a "good" director can never make a "bad" film), Sarris hails this tech stunt as "a major work of cinematic art." Who would agree with this today? (He praised the mediocrity of Otto Preminger, who had a savvy NYC-pr office. Sarris was naive).
Still...Sarris can be admired. He reminds us that Belmondo is an original who went "international by staying national" (as did Bardot and other French actors who snubbed Hollywood, with good reason); Blake Edwards could be a "creative force" in LaLa (fat chance); Dirk Bogarde gives the performance of his life in the year's most exciting pic, Joseph Losey's The Servant; Geo Axelrod's Lord Love a Duck presents the best comic ensemble since the days of Preston Sturges; Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes is "one of the great films of the 60s."
Today's critics are publicists who dribble over aliens, robots, vampires, bugs -- Made in USA. Where else?
=======
*Update 7/3/2020
Sarris flaunts his homophobia in his 1966 review of "The Leather Boys."
See comment #17 below.
November 10, 2011
I think this was the first book where AS presented his "Auteur" theory. The one I had back in the 70's was hardbound. Good stuff for the serious film buff. Sarris was the critic for The Village Voice. Date read is approximate.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews