FILM COMMENT MAGAZINE celebrates its 50th Anniversary
Highlights from the November/December issue includes interviews with Richard Corliss by David Thomson, Best and Worst covers and “The Guilty Pleasures Hall of Infamy”
NEW YORK, NY (November 13, 2013) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrates Film Comment magazine on the publication’s 50th Anniversary with 26 pages dedicated to the history of the magazine, its writers and editors and the films and filmmakers they have championed through the years.
Film Comment began as a 36-page booklet called Vision, billed as “a magazine of film commentary.” 279 issues and 5,887 articles later, Film Comment remains one of a very few print magazines still on the scene providing a robust forum for film criticism.
Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Gavin Smith, said, “When I became editor in 2000, having been on the magazine’s staff for 12 years prior to that, I was daunted at the prospect of following in the footsteps of my predecessors, Richard T. Jameson, Harlan Jacobson, Richard Corliss, and founding editor the late Gordon Hitchens. All of them were tough acts to follow in different ways, and so while I’ve tried to make the magazine as relevant as possible to current film culture, I have also tried to maintain a standard of excellence and improve the quality of the writing and design where possible, and stay true to the magazine’s tradition as a film-history trailblazer and as a place where new writers can bloom. Each era of the magazine was surely defined by the agenda of the moment and when I took over, the domain of international cinema seemed to be entering an exciting new phase. But when I look back at what the previous editors of the magazine achieved, there’s much to admire and envy in terms of writing talent and opportunities to break new ground.”
Contributing writers through the years have included Paul Schrader, Olivier Assayas, Ingmar Bergman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Peter Bogdanovich, David Bordwell, Alex Cox, Cameron Crowe, Arnaud Desplechin, Clint Eastwood, Roger Ebert, Manny Farber, Jodie Foster, Buck Henry, Walter Hill, Guy Maddin, Andrew Sarris, John Sayles, Kevin Smith, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Bertrand Tavernier, Elie Wiesel and many others.
“Film Comment connects me to a time when films and filmmakers actually mattered and were treated as being worthy of serious discussion. There's no other cinema magazine remotely like it.”
– Steven Soderbergh
“I love every aspect of motion pictures, and I'm committed to it for life. Film Comment has that same commitment when it comes to writing about motion pictures.”
– Clint Eastwood
Among the highlights paying homage to the magazine’s history are:
An essay on the history of the magazine and its illustrious writers
An interview with 1970s editor Richard Corliss, by David Thomson
Ten Best and Worst Film Comment Covers, as voted by Film Comment’s contributors
A comprehensive color-coded timeline with each issue's highlights
A list of Film Comment’s most frequent contributors over the past 50 years
The Guilty Pleasures Hall of Infamy
As part of the celebration, filmcomment.com will post the aforementioned history of the magazine in delectable individual portions, once per day, until the entire tale is told. Reviews and select departments from the special anniversary issue will also be available on the website, as well as some exclusive multimedia content.
On Twitter and Facebook, Film Comment will count down the magazine’s 10 Best and 10 Worst Covers. Beginning Monday, November 18, there will also be a contest in which three lucky respondents will be chosen to receive a signed magazine by Wes Anderson, Albert Brooks, Joel and Ethan Coen, David Cronenberg, Claire Denis or Jim Jarmusch.
The November/December issue of Film Comment is on newsstands now. For information regarding Film Comment Magazine subscriptions go to: filmcomment.com/subscribe
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of the moving image. Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year's most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, LatinBeat, New Directors/New Films, NewFest, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema and Rendez-vous With French Cinema. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, Film Society recognizes an artist's unique achievement in film with the prestigious “Chaplin Award.” The Film Society's state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at Lincoln Center, provide a home for year round programs and the New York City film community.
The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, Jaeger-LeCoultre, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stonehenge Partners, Stella Artois, illy café, the Kobal Collection, Trump International Hotel and Tower, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.
For Media specific inquiries, please contact:
Film Society of Lincoln Center:
John Wildman, (212) 875-5419
[email protected]
David Ninh, (212) 875-5423
[email protected]
