I watch a lot of movies, sometimes four a week between new releases in theatres and slightly older flicks on DVD and The Movie Network. But I've been reading "Who the Devil Made It", a collection of interviews with film directors by Peter Bogdanovich, and Bogdanovich's film habit borders on pathological. Between 1952 and 1970, he saw over 5,300 movies, including 3,661 features, all duly catalogued on index cards. That is just sick amount of time to spend in the dark with your clothes on.
The book is very interesting, but Bogdanovich is a terrible interviewer. A lot of the talks simply follow the director's career, where he says "Such-and-such was an interesting movie" and off the director goes with another story. There isn't much sense of Bogdanovich preparing for the interviews. Contrast that with the late Brian Linehan, whose research was prodigous, as were his evident passion for the subjects he interviewed. Thankfully, the subjects are so fascinating, his weaknesses just slide by.
Unfortunately, I'm guessing that a lot of people might pick this up, read Bogdanovich's introduction, and immediately put it down. That Bogdanovich is the same puffed-chest egoistic blowhard of "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", and knowing what ultimately became of his career in advance made his fall in that book no less enjoyable. The suggestion that his then-wife Polly Platt may have had as much to do with his early successes as the great director was one of that book's many small pleasures, and this claim certainly finds support in his post-Platt excesses. This introduction is an attempt to clear the air about his public indiscretions, most notably marrying his ex-lover's kid sister, and it has no real connection for the most part with the book that follows. A less self-indulgent author would have known that no one cares about the interviewer's career arc; let's just get on to the interviews. If you're a fan of film, the words of such greats as Hitchcock, Cukor, Hawks and many others will stimulate your enjoyment of their films. Just skip the introduction. If you feel the need to get to know Peter Bogdanovich, rent a few of his films. Just make sure you stop around 1973.
The book is very interesting, but Bogdanovich is a terrible interviewer. A lot of the talks simply follow the director's career, where he says "Such-and-such was an interesting movie" and off the director goes with another story. There isn't much sense of Bogdanovich preparing for the interviews. Contrast that with the late Brian Linehan, whose research was prodigous, as were his evident passion for the subjects he interviewed. Thankfully, the subjects are so fascinating, his weaknesses just slide by.
Unfortunately, I'm guessing that a lot of people might pick this up, read Bogdanovich's introduction, and immediately put it down. That Bogdanovich is the same puffed-chest egoistic blowhard of "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", and knowing what ultimately became of his career in advance made his fall in that book no less enjoyable. The suggestion that his then-wife Polly Platt may have had as much to do with his early successes as the great director was one of that book's many small pleasures, and this claim certainly finds support in his post-Platt excesses. This introduction is an attempt to clear the air about his public indiscretions, most notably marrying his ex-lover's kid sister, and it has no real connection for the most part with the book that follows. A less self-indulgent author would have known that no one cares about the interviewer's career arc; let's just get on to the interviews. If you're a fan of film, the words of such greats as Hitchcock, Cukor, Hawks and many others will stimulate your enjoyment of their films. Just skip the introduction. If you feel the need to get to know Peter Bogdanovich, rent a few of his films. Just make sure you stop around 1973.
posted by George @ 8:31 p.m.
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