The Thing Happens: Ten Years of Writing About the Movies - Hardcover

Rafferty, Terrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802114857 ISBN 13: 9780802114853

Publisher: Grove Pr, 1993

Synopsis

In a collection of his essays, the film critic explores the principles and practices behind filmmaking, the roles movies play in culture, the style and technique of the world's most celebrated directors, and what reviews tell us about the direction of cinema.

About this title

Reviews

New Yorker film critic Rafferty emerges in this collection of essays and reviews as a witty and perceptive observer, blending erudition and enthusiasm without pretentiousness. A piece on The Rules of the Game discusses Jean Renoir's use of music, images and metaphor in that 1939 film; the article is "as close to a comprehensive statement of my aesthetic principles as I'll ever get," Rafferty notes. Twelve essays evaluate the style and vision of various directors, including Martin Scorsese, Satyajit Ray and Mike Leigh. In his reviews (all previously published) of 53 films released since 1986, Rafferty deems David Lynch's Blue Velvet not a "midnight movie" but a "demented matinee"; details how Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing "winds up bullying the audience," and classifies Barbara Kopple's seemingly even tone in the documentary American Dream as "the exaggerated calm of deep shock." Readers will be entertained whether they have seen particular films or not, so deftly does Rafferty analyze them.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rafferty, currently the film critic for The New Yorker , has written for several important periodicals. This collection of previously published pieces is divided into three parts, the first being a long, adulatory essay on Rafferty's favorite film, Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game. There are brief discussions of 12 directors, including John Huston, from whom the title is derived. The final portion consists of reviews of films released over the past ten years, with the exception of a discussion of Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934). This compilation reveals Rafferty to be a keen observer of cinema, and like other well-regarded film writers and critics, his opinions are sometimes controversial. His writings are usually cogent, however, in the tradition of his predecessor at The New Yorker , Pauline Kael. Recommended for cinema collections.
- Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802114857
• ISBN 13: 9780802114853
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 399