The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits
For half a century, theVillage Voicehas set the gold standard for serious film coverage. The New York City alternative weekly has boasted three of America's best critics--Jonas Mekas, Andrew Sarris, and J. Hoberman--and the backup reviewers have been nearly as good. In the pieces collected here, they turn their acumen to some 150 films, from Bunuel'sL'Age d'Orand Vigo'sZero for Conductto Scorsese'sThe Age of Innocence, from meritorious crowd-pleasers likeChinatownand2001to avant-garde works by Stan Brakhage and Joseph Cornell. Although most of the reviews were written for the films' initial releases, roughly a quarter of them were composed to notice revival screenings in Manhattan's many repertory houses, such as those of the silent masterworksSunriseandLes Vampires; two and even three commentaries occasioned by other such screenings appear. In view of the recent sale of theVoiceto a chain that seems set on eviscerating arts coverage, this valuable, illuminating collection may be a swan song for the publication's former preeminence.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved