Interview with Phillip Lopate, editor of American Movie Critics: An Anthology From The Silents Until Now

If you can judge the quality of a book by how much the reader talks about it, this book is a great success.

When I received it, I quickly told friends about some of the amazing reviews and essays it contained. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let me just jump straight into the interview with Phillip Lopate, editor of American Movie Critics: An Anthology From The Silents Until Now

He previously edited The Art of the Personal Essay and other books, and has written several books, as well as a collection of film criticism: Totally Tenderly Tragically.

As a lover of film and good film criticism, I can attest this book is a gem.

Scott Butki:  What did you intend to accomplish with this book project? Did you accomplish it?

Phillip Lopate: I wanted to offer up a possible "canon" of American film criticism, or at least start the discussion going, and at the same time to position film criticism as a type of American belles-lettres, a repository of some of the best critical prose we have.  I do think I accomplished both aims, to my satisfaction, at least. 

SB: How did you decide what to include and what to exclude?

PL: It was very hard to decide what to include and what to exclude.  My main emphasis was on the past, and I am particularly proud of the historical sections.  I knew the critics I wanted to include, but often they had written so much good stuff (or so much OK but undistinguished stuff) that it was hard to choose.  I settled for those pieces that knocked me over, or bit me in the ass.  Or were characteristic of some tendency or other.  It was impossible to include everything worthwhile that someone like Vachel Lindsay or Manny Farber wrote, so I put in a few pieces that would represent their thinking and achievement. 

SB: Which is your favorite selection? Why?

PL: I don't have a single "favorite" selection, but I suppose the selection I did of Otis Ferguson pleased me the most, because he is fantastic and largely forgotten.  I also got a kick out of Cecilia Ager, who wrote humorously from the women's fashion angle, and has also been largely forgotten. 

SB: For me the most interesting one is the one about Gone With the Wind. That's the one I most wanted to exchange opinions about with fellow movie buffs. I searched in vain for a copy of it online. It's one thing to talk about movies like Crash but quite another to read a black film critic's indictment of this racist movie. What are your thoughts on that piece: "Gone With the Wind Is More Dangerous Than Birth of a Nation?"

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education.

He is an in-house media critic, a recovering Tetris addict and a proud uncle.

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