Temple University Press, 2003 Cloth: 978-1-56639-995-1 | Paper: 978-1-56639-996-8 Library of Congress Classification PN1994.H57 2003 Dewey Decimal Classification 791.43
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK The "magic hour" is the name film-makers give the pre-dusk late afternoon, when anything photographed can be bathed in a melancholy golden light. A similar mood characterized the movies of the 1990s, occasioned by cinema's 1995-96 centennial and the waning of the twentieth century, as well as the decline of cinephilia and the seemingly universal triumph of Hollywood.The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle anthologizes J. Hoberman's movie reviews, cultural criticism, and political essays, published in The Village Voice, Artforum, and elsewhere during the period bracketed by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the World Trade Towers. Demonstrating Hoberman's range as a critic, this collection reflects on the influence of Fritz Lang, as well as Quentin Tarantino, on the end of the Western and representation of the Gulf War, the Hong Kong neo-wave and the "boomerography" manifest in the cycle of movies inspired by the reign of Bill Clinton. As in his previous anthology, Vulgar Modernism: Writings on Movies and Other Media (nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award), Hoberman's overriding interest is the intersection of popular culture and political power at the point where the history of film merges with what Jean-Luc Godard called "the film of history."
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY J. Hoberman is the senior film critic at the Village Voice and Adjunct Professor of Cinema at Cooper Union. His books include Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds (Temple, 1995), The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism (Temple, 1998), and the anthology Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Movies and Other Media (Temple, 1991) which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award in criticism.
REVIEWS
"This book is the film-security x-ray device we really need: it sees through everything. Witty, caustic, passionate and wise, Hoberman treats movies as the bizarre cross-cultural phenomenon they have become in a book of critical essays that somehow manages to be a suspenseful page-turner. Film criticism at this level is deliciously close to philosophy."—David Cronenberg
"J. Hoberman is one of the best film critics working regularly in America today. His reviews and essays have many striking qualities that help account for its cogency, insight, and authority. He is exceptionally knowledgeable about film history and very deft at bringing it to bear on the films under discussion. His writing is terse, aphoristic, and unpredictable—pure gold. Whether we agree with him or not, he is a pleasure to read."—Morris Dickstein, CUNY Graduate Center, and author of Gates of Eden, and Leopards in the Temple
"Archivist, excavator and wicked wit, J. Hoberman holds a lead place at the forefront of contemporary American film criticism. In The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle, he effortlessly transcends the banality of so much of our contemporary film culture and identifies essential truths about how we watch and why. Even when the movies are lousy Hoberman is inimitable."—Manohla Dargis, movie critic, Los Angeles Times
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: All as It Had BeenPart I: Pulp FictionsThe Lang Twentieth CenturyWhite DogBasic InstinctBlade RunnerKiss Me DeadlyNatural Born KillersPulp FictionMeet "Beat" TakeshiAshes of TimeMars Attacks!Starship TroopersSan Sergio LeonePart II: Adventures in DreamlandThe Long Day ClosesExoticaDie Hard with a VengeanceI Shot Andy WarholAventureraVertigoThe Truman ShowThere's Something about Mary (and Mary)How Star Wars Supplanted Religion, Mutated the Species, and Changed the MoviesRun Shag RunEyes Wide ShutIn the Mood for LoveThe Man Who CriedA.I.: The Dreamlife of AndroidsPart III: Once and Future VanguardsNaked Lunch and TribulationPoisonAvant RetroArchangelSergei ParadjanovLessons of DarknessMystery Science Theatre 3000: The MovieDead ManFragments * JerusalemMother and SonPeckerThe IdiotsThe Wind Will Carry UsMaking New MemoriesMulholland DrivePart IV: The History of Film, the Film of HistoryHow the Western Was LostSchindler's ListRace MoviesJawsQuiz ShowNixonGet on the BusUndergroundPoint of OrderApocalypse Now and ThenBack to IraqPart V: Our Rock 'n' Roll PresidentClinton vs. Bush: A Lover or a Fighter?The Clinton ShowBorn Again AgainThe Remaking of the PresidentBob Dole, American HeroIndependence Day 1996Boom's EndEntertainer-in-ChiefPleasantville: Somewhere Under the RainbowCine Clinton: the Contender et al.The Film Critic of Tomorrow, TodayAppendix: Ten "10 Best" Lists, 1991-2000Index
Temple University Press, 2003 Cloth: 978-1-56639-995-1 Paper: 978-1-56639-996-8
The "magic hour" is the name film-makers give the pre-dusk late afternoon, when anything photographed can be bathed in a melancholy golden light. A similar mood characterized the movies of the 1990s, occasioned by cinema's 1995-96 centennial and the waning of the twentieth century, as well as the decline of cinephilia and the seemingly universal triumph of Hollywood.The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle anthologizes J. Hoberman's movie reviews, cultural criticism, and political essays, published in The Village Voice, Artforum, and elsewhere during the period bracketed by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the World Trade Towers. Demonstrating Hoberman's range as a critic, this collection reflects on the influence of Fritz Lang, as well as Quentin Tarantino, on the end of the Western and representation of the Gulf War, the Hong Kong neo-wave and the "boomerography" manifest in the cycle of movies inspired by the reign of Bill Clinton. As in his previous anthology, Vulgar Modernism: Writings on Movies and Other Media (nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award), Hoberman's overriding interest is the intersection of popular culture and political power at the point where the history of film merges with what Jean-Luc Godard called "the film of history."
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY J. Hoberman is the senior film critic at the Village Voice and Adjunct Professor of Cinema at Cooper Union. His books include Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds (Temple, 1995), The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism (Temple, 1998), and the anthology Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Movies and Other Media (Temple, 1991) which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award in criticism.
REVIEWS
"This book is the film-security x-ray device we really need: it sees through everything. Witty, caustic, passionate and wise, Hoberman treats movies as the bizarre cross-cultural phenomenon they have become in a book of critical essays that somehow manages to be a suspenseful page-turner. Film criticism at this level is deliciously close to philosophy."—David Cronenberg
"J. Hoberman is one of the best film critics working regularly in America today. His reviews and essays have many striking qualities that help account for its cogency, insight, and authority. He is exceptionally knowledgeable about film history and very deft at bringing it to bear on the films under discussion. His writing is terse, aphoristic, and unpredictable—pure gold. Whether we agree with him or not, he is a pleasure to read."—Morris Dickstein, CUNY Graduate Center, and author of Gates of Eden, and Leopards in the Temple
"Archivist, excavator and wicked wit, J. Hoberman holds a lead place at the forefront of contemporary American film criticism. In The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle, he effortlessly transcends the banality of so much of our contemporary film culture and identifies essential truths about how we watch and why. Even when the movies are lousy Hoberman is inimitable."—Manohla Dargis, movie critic, Los Angeles Times
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: All as It Had BeenPart I: Pulp FictionsThe Lang Twentieth CenturyWhite DogBasic InstinctBlade RunnerKiss Me DeadlyNatural Born KillersPulp FictionMeet "Beat" TakeshiAshes of TimeMars Attacks!Starship TroopersSan Sergio LeonePart II: Adventures in DreamlandThe Long Day ClosesExoticaDie Hard with a VengeanceI Shot Andy WarholAventureraVertigoThe Truman ShowThere's Something about Mary (and Mary)How Star Wars Supplanted Religion, Mutated the Species, and Changed the MoviesRun Shag RunEyes Wide ShutIn the Mood for LoveThe Man Who CriedA.I.: The Dreamlife of AndroidsPart III: Once and Future VanguardsNaked Lunch and TribulationPoisonAvant RetroArchangelSergei ParadjanovLessons of DarknessMystery Science Theatre 3000: The MovieDead ManFragments * JerusalemMother and SonPeckerThe IdiotsThe Wind Will Carry UsMaking New MemoriesMulholland DrivePart IV: The History of Film, the Film of HistoryHow the Western Was LostSchindler's ListRace MoviesJawsQuiz ShowNixonGet on the BusUndergroundPoint of OrderApocalypse Now and ThenBack to IraqPart V: Our Rock 'n' Roll PresidentClinton vs. Bush: A Lover or a Fighter?The Clinton ShowBorn Again AgainThe Remaking of the PresidentBob Dole, American HeroIndependence Day 1996Boom's EndEntertainer-in-ChiefPleasantville: Somewhere Under the RainbowCine Clinton: the Contender et al.The Film Critic of Tomorrow, TodayAppendix: Ten "10 Best" Lists, 1991-2000Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC