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May 27, 2005

Andrew Sarris: the extended remix

On Film Comment's website, Kent Jones reflects on the legacy of accidental auteurist Andrew Sarris in a piece longer than the one in June's paper-'n'-ink issue. A snippet: "Sarris was always bracingly honest about his prejudices, and his greatest was for the avant-garde. "Live and let live has been my motto," he wrote of his reluctance to attack non-narrative films in print, "and since most American avant-garde film artists have tended to be as poor as church mice, it seemed unduly cruel to heap abuse atop neglect." I will never forget the hair-raising moment when he took fellow Voice writer Jim Hoberman to task in print for "freaking out on the arthouse acid below 14th Street." In retrospect, while I can't abide the notion that narrative is the only package in which moving images should be wrapped, I have to commend and even envy Sarris for his candor—most of his colleagues would have hidden behind layers of rationalization or obfuscation." [Much more at the link.]

Posted by at May 27, 2005 04:04 AM

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