October 6, 2008

Filmmaker overviews.

Cinematheque Ontario: Oshima The "filmmaker overview essay" is "an immensely useful and educational form," notes Girish, who then points to a healthy handful, only one of which has been noted before here: Jonathan Rosenbaum's piece on Nagisa Oshima for Artforum. The occasion for that one, of course, is In the Realm of Oshima, the series co-organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Cinematheque Ontario and curated by James Quandt - whose essay on Oshima for the Cinematheque is now online.

Two more Girish has been reading: Adrian Martin on Abel Ferrara for 16:9 and, again, Jonathan Rosenbaum, this time with a 1988 piece on Sergei Parajanov. "Finally, the Senses of Cinema Great Directors database is the definitive resource of its kind on the Interwebs," adds Girish, who, having recommended several books as well, naturally wraps it all up with a question: "Do you have some favorite examples of either books or individual essays, print or online, of filmmaker overview pieces?" If so, head to Girish's place and add to the collection.



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Posted by dwhudson at October 6, 2008 6:23 AM

Comments

Sorry but Senses of Cinema varies wildly in quality, depth, and date of last update. The particular academic specialties or oeuvre blindspots of the author make for another wildcard. Not to mention that a few authors regard plot summaries as analysis. It can be useful, but, like so much on the web, it is treated as more authoritative than it is.

Posted by: nabob at October 6, 2008 7:07 AM

Thanks for linking, David!

Nabob, even though I'm currently aware of no better one-stop on the Web for filmmaker overviews than the Senses database, I have to agree with you about the considerable and frustrating variability in scope and depth of entries. Just a thought: perhaps it might help if they allowed multiple entries for a filmmaker.

Posted by: Girish at October 6, 2008 8:16 AM