Scorsese & Tedeschi: The 50 Year Argument
”Cinematekets egne premiere-dokumentarer – håndplukkede historier fra virkeligheden”, sådan præsenteres et fint initiativ, som også kaldes ”månedens dokumentar”, som vises i Filmhuset ved 6 forevisninger, således også januar måneds bemærkelsesværdige ”The 50 Year Argument”, der vises i sin originalversion og uden danske undertekster. Premiere den 29. Januar. En filmisk hyldest til legendariske New York Review of Books i anledning af bladets 50 års jubillæum. Martin Scorsese og David Tedeschi har løst opgaven (bestilt af bladet) med humor og respekt for det skrevne ord, men også med sans for det historiske og tematiske, med tankevækkende og undertiden gribende nedslag i tekster og personer, som vil blive stående i litteraturen og journalistikken. Man får lyst til straks at få fat i bladet og dets artikler skrevet af en række fremragende forfattere, filosoffer, videnskabsfolk og journalister.
The main character is the fine gentleman Robert Silvers, 84 years old, one of the founders, who (together with Barbara Epstein (died in 2006)) ”has guided the Review since its launch”, quote from HBO press material. He is working from morning till night seven days a week and he is the one behind the 50 year celebration event that has been filmed with several contributors reading texts from the essays, they have delivered. Boring with people reading from a speakers podium? Not at all, the texts are put in excerpts on the screen, often accompanied with archive footage and photos of the contributors, beautiful b/w works, and for instance archive footage with James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Noman Mailer, Gore
Vidal, Isaiah Berlin and Vaclav Havel. The latter is dealt with by Timothy Garton Ash, historian and essayist, professor at Oxford University, who followed and wrote about Prague 1989/90, with Havel in focus.
The narrative goes from the 60’es, the killing of Kennedy till today’s Occupy movement caught in the streets of Manhattan. Not necessarily in a chronological structure. Thematically the film covers the wars, the women’s liberation movement (with clips of the debate between Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer), the art scene with Warhol of course and much more, as New York Review of Books has always been precisely much more than a biweekly magazine. It has covered political events and wars, often with a controversial approach.
There are many roses to Silvers, often like ”he trusted me as a writer”, and many stresses the fact that he (Silvers) very often has asked writers far away from a subject to write. Like Joan Didion did with The Central Park Case. Silvers stresses that an editor is one, who asks, he should never command.
An entertaining and fascinating visual hommage to Words as they are being loved by and cared for by brilliant writers inspired by a unique editor.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jan/24/society
USA, 2014, 95 mins.
