Anthology and Toronto. Polonsky and Trumbo.

As the Anthology Film Archives opens the series Unamerican Activities: The Films Abraham Polonsky tonight in New York (through September 19), a documentary on blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is getting raves in Toronto. Coincidence? Well, yes, actually. Still, these two events resonate so nicely, they belong in an entry together.

"If the artist's worst fear is to be denied the right to create, then the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s lavished the ultimate punishment on Abraham Polonsky," writes Fernando F Croce at Slant. "At the height of his talents, after the acclaimed directorial debut of Force of Evil in 1948, the fiercely Marxist dramaturg was blacklisted by the HUAC and effectively shunned from Hollywood filmmaking for the next two decades." The Anthology retrospective "honors both his work as writer and director and also offers an in-depth look at the impact of blacklisted artists in Thom Andersen and Noël Burch's 1995 documentary Red Hollywood."

In the Voice, J Hoberman previews a few of the series' highlights; more from Cullen Gallagher in the L Magazine.

"Many of the documentaries you tend to see at film festivals represent one of two polar extremes," notes James Rocchi at Cinematical. "One is the trenchant, heartfelt exploration of some issue of politics - which, while fascinating, can be a bit of a slog. The other is the breezy, buzzy exploration of some aspect of show business - which, while fun, can be a bit light. Trumbo - directed by Peter Askin and based on Christopher Trumbo's play taken from his father Dalton Trumbo's letters - manages to hit a perfect sweet spot between those two extremes. It's informative, impassioned, insightful; it's funny and fabulous and filled with film-love." And an online listening tip: James interviews Askin.

In the doc, the letters are read by the likes of David Straithairn, Nathan Lane, Michael Douglas, Joan Allen, Liam Neeson and Paul Giamatti. For the New York Times, Michael Cieply talks with Christopher Trumbo.

"What makes Trumbo so fascinating to watch is that it captures a writer's life at the farthest swings of a pendulum," writes Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times. "Listening to actors read from letters can often be a tedious experience, but these are no ordinary letters. Often written when Trumbo was in desperate straits, they soar and sizzle, capturing the sassy sophistication of midcentury Hollywood movie talk."

Posted by dwhudson at September 13, 2007 12:01 PM