Comments on: Homage to Robin Wood

By: morlockjeff

morlockjeff — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:36:54 +0000

Structuralism. I had forgotten about that movement but it still lives on in the teachings of David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (the popular university tome FILM ART) and some movies that came out of that – Wavelength, Riddles of the Sphinx, Zoms Lemma, etc. I never could get into that. It was like losing the trail of breadcrumbs in the woods. I remember reading Wood’s essays occasionally in Film Comment before their format became more “commercial.” At the time, I was too interested in contemporary cinema and the current trends to pay attention to what he was saying.

By: Jimmy Otto

Jimmy Otto — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:39:46 +0000

excellent piece on one of cinema’s finest historians…feel free to cross-post any and all of your mm blogs on the cfdg meetup discussion board, susan; hope you’re well and look forward to seeing ya at a screening in the near future…

By: kingrat

kingrat — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:02:25 +0000

Thank you for a great tribute. I believe that Wood was one of the first critics who argued that North by Northwest was one of Hitchcock’s masterpieces, which at the time was even stranger than calling Vertigo a masterpiece.

Wood attended Cambridge at the time when the extremely influential critic F.R. Leavis held sway in the field of literary studies. The prickly style of Wood’s early work imitates the manner of Leavis. Just as Leavis favored close readings of poetry and other literary genres, Wood saw himself as bringing the close reading of Leavis to the study of films.

Sight and Sound represented mainstream English film taste of the 1950s and 1960s. The auteurist English critics were venomous about Sight and Sound, both the magazine itself, its reviewers, and specific reviews. Not many viewers today would follow the S&S line that Hitchcock’s British films were his best.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:32:50 +0000

I was moved by your respectful and affectionate tribute.

By: debbe

debbe — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:04:23 +0000

lovely suzidoll. a lovely tribute, lovely writing. and really lovely to be introduced to someone so gracious and smart. seems like a real loss in the film world. hope more people can appreciate his contribution because of you.