We Need A New Era of Film Writing by Craig Hammill

For the first time in a long while, I’m reading a book of movie director interviews: Interviews with Film Directors Edited by Andrew Sarris, 1967, Bobbs Merrill).

It’s filled with 1950’s and 1960’s interviews, Q&As, self-penned pieces by the likes of 20th century filmmaking giants like Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, John Ford, Jean Luc Godard, Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Luis Buñuel, Sergei Eisenstein, etc.

On one hand, it’s an exciting throwback to the exact time when cinema was at one of its zeniths. On the other hand, one can also see how it’s of its moment.

It’s sort of comical now to read these interviews where journalists want filmmakers’ opinions on everything from God to the nature of the universe to politics and the filmmakers, though keen to gab, often express discomfort at some of the intense interpretations the writers have of the filmmakers’ works. It’s also encouraging to see how many of the filmmakers go out of their way to bring the journalists down to earth.

At the same time though, filmmakers like Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Sergei Eisenstein delve into areas that often feel too theoretical or reverse-engineered from what may have actually been the thought process at the time of creation.

All of this is to paradoxically say, I MISS THESE KINDS OF INTERVIEWS AND FILM WRITING. I miss them because they basically emphasize in their form and content that cinema is exciting, worthwhile, and important. And I feel that even more strongly today than I did as a teenager in the throes of discovering incredible movies.

We now feel like we’re in a “Cinema in flux” moment. Covid, movies that get released direct to streaming or simultaneously to streaming and the theater, the relative superior quality and complexity of television, the exciting new vital short film work coming from mediums still relatively young like video games, Tik Tok, YouTube, the Stories functions on a number of platforms, etc all vie for our eyeballs and ear drums, our hearts and our minds. The days when your choices for entertainment via modern technology were the radio, the movie theater, or three channels on your TV are now as seemingly ancient as the Roman empire.

We live in a world of a thousand niche kingdoms populated by a million niche tribes. We’ve picked our kingdoms and we’ve picked our tribes. And it may just be that the near “high opera and great work of literature” thrill accorded movies are also artifacts of the past.

But I don’t think so. I think a Golden Age of Movies and Movie Writing are just about to burst out. That is, if we each individually do our part. And the exciting thing now is that we can, in many ways, take what was great from previous times and build on it. Craft and shape it to the current moment. To the current needs. To the current concerns. To the current challenges.

For anyone who doesn’t know what the hell I’m talking about, there was this amazing moment in the 1950’s-1970’s (50-70+ years ago now, yikes!) where film writing was as vital and key to the pop culture and cultural conversation as opinion pieces in the New York Times. . . or maybe put another way. . .as important as a tweet or post or youtube essay from a hugely influential personality today.

Film writers like Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Ebert here in America and Francois Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard, Andre Bazin in France at Cahiers Du Cinema wrote often challenging and contrarian pieces (maybe not so much Sarris, Bogdanovich, and Ebert who instead focused their energies on championing singular voices both in the US and abroad). Cahiers Du Cinema was famous for praising ignored works from B genres like noir and horror. And writers like Pauline Kael went to the mat for maverick 70’s filmmakers like Robert Altman.

I’ve often said it privately to friends but I tend to disagree with about 90% of Pauline Kael’s takes on movies. I’ve always felt bad for how she went after Orson Welles in her book Raising Kane trying to ascribe Citizen Kane’s brilliance almost exclusively to its co-screenwriter Herman J. Mankewiecz. She may very well have sincerely felt that. And certainly Welles was an egotist and Mankewiecz’s contribution was monumental. As a writer myself, I too get angry when directors minimize or ignore the vital contribution of the writer.

But it’s head scratching to me when all Welles’ later movies bear the exact same stylistic daring, imprint, creativity. Movies Welles wrote and adapted himself…quite brilliantly. And of course Kane is largely carried by Welles ‘ theatrical brilliance as a performer and director of performers.

I also puzzled at Kael’s insistence on praising her pet favorite filmmakers even if that particular movie stunk while going out of her way to back handedly minimize the genius successful work of filmmakers she didn’t care for (we’ll skip out on naming names here, you can read her reviews and figure it out for yourself).

But I LOVE reading Pauline Kael because she LOVES movies. And she’ll FIGHT for movies. And she’ll ENRAGE you about movies. And she’ll make you PASSIONATE about movies because she’s passionate about movies.

And for all I know Kael had a brilliant dialectical motivation for her often counter-intuitive reviews: they almost always sparked heated conversation and debate among cinefiles. So God Bless Pauline Kael for that.

Then there’s the in-depth work of the greatest of the great film writers: French critic Andre Bazin who wrote the definitive work on Jean Renoir and American critic Donald Richie who devoted his life to writing about the great Japanese filmmakers, specifically Akira Kurosawa from whom he elicited the absolute best interviews and insights.

So finally all of this is to say a few things:

First, we aim to start sharing with you some excerpts and clips and articles from some of this great film writing. So be on the look out.

Second, we have an opportunity here to take inspiration and nourishment from these models and try to kindle, ignite, and enflame passion and passionate debate about moviemaking again. With the added responsibility that most good writers have (in my opinion) of honestly engaging, examining, questioning the issues of the day. Film writing today should fully engage with the Black Lives Matter, MeToo, LatinX & BiPoc, LGBTQ movements rightly pushing all of us to be more inclusionary, more communal, more accepting of everyone’s co-equal and meritorous humanity. Concurrently though, good film writing can’t be afraid to write thoughtful pieces questioning some of the most extreme aspects of our current moment and asking if there can’t be a new or different or third way of reconciling seemingly contradictory values like promoting free speech even when it offends while identifying hurtful hate speech because it really DOES incite and cause pain and violence.

It’s a big task. But all the worthwhile things are always impossible. Nobody goes into moviemaking unless they like impossible tasks.

Because after all, as Nelson Mandela so rightly observed, “It always seems impossible…until it’s done.”

Let’s get writing.

Craig Hammill is the founder.programmer of Secret Movie Club.