5/15/2006

When film critics gather

This so-called symposium . . . as always this is a blinkered term in the context of film; revealing far more about those who use it than it ever could about its nominal subjects . . . was initially broadcast over KPFA, Pacifica Radio's flagship station in San Francisco, and features three film critics about whom the term 'legend', for once, can safely be used: To wit, the aforementioned former Partisan Review editor and recidivist Trotskyite, Dwight MacDonald; Pauline Kael, then a freelance art-house veteran and latter-day flapper; and John Simon, someone whom a friend of mine once referred to rather unkindly as the Slobodan Miloševic of arts criticism (unkind and also unfair; to the best of my knowledge, Miloševic was never heard to exclaim "Gays in the theater! I can't wait until AIDS kills them all!"). Of the three, two have gone on to their great reward; the other has inspired many to wish he'd made that trip long long ago.
Hier anhören.