Tag: publishing

TURN EVERY PAGE – Review

Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb, in TURN EVERY PAGE. Photo credit: Claudia Raschke. Courtesy of Wild Surmise Productions, LLC / Sony Pictures Classics

What a delightful documentary is TURN EVERY PAGE – THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT CARO AND ROBERT GOTTLIEB. This witty, warm and insightful documentary is like a double biography of two literary giants, legendary author Robert Caro and his long-time editor, the equally legendary Robert Gottlieb.

Robert Caro is the author of “The Power Broker,” an examination of the career of New York power broker Robert Moses, considered one of the most definitive non-fiction books on political power behind the scenes, and the award-winning four volume history of Lyndon B. Johnson. Robert Gottlieb is the editor-in-chief of prestigious publishing house Knopf and heads up the renown New Yorker magazine, and has edited an astonishing list of great authors and great books, including Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 (and Gottlieb came up with that number), John Le Carre, Salmon Rushdie, Toni Morrison, and so many more greats that it looks like a list of the best writers and books of the 20th century.

TURN EVERY PAGE is a delight especially if you are a reader, but even if you have an interest in politics and history or you just like meeting intelligent, charming people who have led interesting lives. The two Bobs are significant literary figures but this winning documentary surprises us with their personal stories and their quirky, appealing personalities.

These two men are among the most influential figures in publishing in the 20th century but TURN EVERY PAGE is filled with wit and affection, the personal side of two people with massive talent. Both are shy and charming, but with their prickly side and quirks. Their professional partnership yielded great writing and insightful history but telling their story also tells the story of publishing in a vanishing era.

The director is Gottlieb’s daughter, Lizzie, realized she was in a unique position to tell this story. Her closeness to both subjects is a big help in many ways, including because she knows both these men so well and therefore knows the right questions to ask, and where to find hidden gold for this documentary.

Robert Caro, 87, and Robert Gottlieb, 91, have worked together for 50 years, as partnership that continues as Caro now is working on his last volume on LBJ (which he describes as “volume 5 of a 3 volume biography”), while Gottlieb waits to edit it. But, as he has always done. Gottlieb does not ask when it will be finished, content to wait until Caro knows it is finished, despite the sense that both men are racing against time.

Not that Gottlieb is doing nothing as he waits. In fact he is impressively busy, as the documentary makes clear. He is editing other works, continues to lead the New Yorker, and helps manage a Miami ballet company! And he reads voraciously – everything.

The two Bobs are brilliant but definitely have their quirks. For one thing, they both had to be cajoled in this project. Secondly, they refused to be interviewed together, to even be in the same room. Rather a strange thing for two men who have worked together for so long. Part of the reason was they both felt what they did together, their discussions while editing a book, was too personal to share.

The title comes from something Caro’s editor at Newsday said to him, as he was just getting started as an investigative reporter -“turn every page,” meaning overlook nothing, do not assume, be diligent – you never know what will be revealed on the next page. It is a good description for both this documentary and the way these men have lived. Thorough, sincere, diligent, they both are deeply committed to achieving the highest level in their work. That goal is something that the many authors and readers featured in this documentary attest they have achieved.

The two men are charming but also very different. Gottlieb seems more sociable and funny, while Caro is more reserved and intensely private. Director Lizzie describes growing up in a house filled with literary figures, frequently gathered around the table for dinners. Everyone except Robert Caro. Caro was the distant enigma, the one who held himself apart, someone Lizzie Gottlieb describes as her “white whale.” One might expect such a figure to be cool, unpleasant, maybe curmudgeonly. Yet Caro is nothing like that. Instead he is polite, personable, smiling, but clearly a quiet, serious person who thinks deeply about his work and strives to make it as perfect as it can be. Still turning every page.

Then there was the debate over semicolons. Caro loves them, Gottlieb not so much. No really, this is serious stuff for these professionals who makes their living on words, but director Lizzie Gottlieb gives this debate a light comic touch, which makes us laugh a little, and uses it to bring out their personalities. Listening to the two of them verbally sparring over punctuation is amusing but surprisingly heartwarming.

The documentary delves into both men’s professional process and recaps some parts of Caro’s “The Power Broker,” on New York mover-and-shaker Robert Moses and his Lyndon Baines Johnson books, which reveal how the books reveal the inner workings of politics through these powerful men’s story. If you have read Caro’s books, the film gives insights on the author’s research, For those that have not, the documentary gives a taste of the kind of shocking revelations the books contain. Another thing the documentary spotlights is Caro’s equal devotion to the quality of the writing, something that makes his books a joy to read in themselves.

As much as the author and editor may battle over punctuation or Caro’s love of the word “loom,” the admiration both men have for each other comes through clearly. The documentary also captures a sense of a passing era, as these long-time collaborators reach the ends of their careers. In the end, the two Bobs finally agree to be filmed together as they work but only with the sound off, keeping what they say private. But that sense of an era gone by is captured poignantly as the two of them scour the Knopf offices in search of a number 2 pencil. It is a perfect moment with which to end this warm and insightful film.

TURN EVERY PAGE – THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT CARO AND ROBERT GOTTLIEB opens Friday, Feb. 10, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas and other theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

BEST SELLERS – Review

Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza star in BEST SELLERS. Courtesy of Screen Media.

Michael Caine. Aubrey Plaza. Great start for an indie dramedy. But how best to deploy such fine assets? No one involved in BEST SELLERS, including director Lina Roessler, seems to have figured that out. How disappointing.

Plaza’s character, Lucy Skinner, recently inherited a publishing company from her dad, and is struggling. No surprise there in a world that does most of its reading on its phones. Lousy timing. Then in an apparent bit of good timing, Caine’s reclusive author character, Harris Shaw, finishes his waaay-overdue second novel, following the prize-winning debut offering that put him and her father on the map decades earlier. He’s become like a J.D. Salinger in his isolation, making this book a potentially huge event. Plaza discovers that he’s obligated under a long-forgotten contract to let her publish it, and if he also cooperates in a promo tour, she is barred from changing a word. So the odd couple hits the road, bristling at each other’s presence. The old curmudgeon just won’t play nice with her or the public.

Caine’s resistance to doing what authors must to spur interest is amusing for a while. Same for Plaza’s efforts to bring him around, lest she lose the family business to an odious, but willing, buyer. There’s also some easy satire about our obsession with the Twitter-verse brand of celebrity, basing merit on one’s number of hits and likes. But it’s all downhill from there in Anthony Grieco’s tepid screenplay.

The failure begins with the highly unlikely timing of Caine just happening to finish a book that took decades to write with Plaza’s desperation that brings them together. Same for the miraculous discovery of the old contract that binds them together throughout a Felix and Oscar ordeal. Caine remains too cantankerous for too long; his health issues are overly familiar as plot elements; Plaza’s handling of the frustrating man who is her last, desperate hope for solvency stretches the essential suspension of disbelief beyond reason. The sentimental aspects of the last third of the film are barely on the palatable side of cheesy.

The stars have earned better scripts. Their fans deserve better vehicles. This is Grieco’s first produced script, and, admittedly, there are a few clever bits in the mix. He’s young enough to be on the upward slope of the learning curve. The potential is there for more satisfying material to come.

BEST SELLERS opens Friday, Sept. 17, in theaters in select cities and on-demand.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM – Review

Toni Morrison in TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM, a Magnolia Pictures release. ©Timothy Greenfield-Sanders / Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

This biographical documentary has an advantage most documentaries about a literary giant lack: the living artist herself. And boy is that as a bonus. The charismatic, iconic Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison helps director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders tells her remarkable story in TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM and, better yet, Morrison offers insightful commentary on her own lauded, beloved novels.

Director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ wonderful documentary TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM is a comprehensive look at a true American treasure, Toni Morrison. This intelligent and entertaining documentary covers the life, the work and the times of this giant of literature and of American culture. Morrison is certainly a worthy documentary subject:. Morrison is the author of such works as SULA, BELOVED, and THE BLUEST EYE, and recipient of a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer, the American Book Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other honors. Her works speak particularly to the black experience and women’s experience, while at the same time being universal.

The documentary not only spotlights Morrison’s work but puts it in the context of the social shifts of the 1960s and 1970s, and beyond. Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is actually a friend of the author, which helped the director coax the usually private Morrison to agree to this project. It also gives him special access and insights on her personal and professional life, all which gives this finely crafted, stirring film a great boost.

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM covers the author’s early life, her struggles as a divorced mother and an academic in a time when both women and blacks faced barriers and discrimination. It also follows her shift to publishing, and then her transition from editor to novelist.

Morrison speaks plainly, bluntly even, but with such personal charm and sharp humor, that the audience can’t help but fall under her spell. She offers insights on the unique neighborhood where she grew up and her family’s own history of standing up to racism, Morrison has some pointed things to say about early ’70s feminism and its relationship to black women, as well as offering praise for her colleagues at her small publishing house, and those later at the large publisher, Random House, that acquired it, the editors and others who encouraged her work as an emerging author in the way publishers once did.

Morrison was a true ground-breaker, not only in her own writing but in the way she opened the door to other black and women writers as an editor at Random House. This documentary is packed with information on her life and work, presented through archival footage and stills, interviews with notable figures such as Oprah Winfrey and Angela Davis, and commentary from numerous scholars and others, discussing the impact of her work.

Director Greenfield-Sanders crafts a strong, engrossing story but this documentary does greatly benefit from extensive interview footage of Morrison herself. This is particularly so when offering analysis of her writings, by critics or readers. How often have you read a novel that raised questions that you would like to ask the author? This documentary lets us hear the answers to some of these questions from the author directly. That is a rare treat but especially nice in this case as Morrison, a former teacher, knows exactly how to address these topics in the most thoughtful and thought-provoking manner.

Interviews with Toni Morrison are scattered throughout the film, as is archival footage of the author throughout her life. Morrison speaks about her work, her life, and her views on various topics. Hearing her commentary in her own voice gives this excellent film a singular insight into not only this author, but into a pivotal moment of American culture and history. It is a unique aspect that makes this documentary a must-see for everyone.

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM opens Friday, July 12, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

NON-FICTION – Review

Juliette Binoche as “Selena” in Olivier Assayas’s Non-Fiction. Courtesy of IFC Films. A Sundance Selects Release.

Juliette Binoche stars as an actress married to an editor at a distinguished French publishing house, in writer/director Olivier Assayas’s latest film NON-FICTION. Assayas is known for smart, emotionally sharp dramatic films such as THE CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA and PERSONAL SHOPPER, but in NON-FICTION, he takes a lighter, comic approach, while still having something smart and sly to say about contemporary life.

In NON-FICTION, the discussions focus on books and publishing but whether it is a sex comedy with commentary on the future of literature and publishing, or a commentary on that with a side of sex comedy, isn’t really clear. Nor does it matter. Either way, the film is a delight – assuming you like both French bedroom comedy and witty conversations about the future for books in a digital world. Much of that discussion takes place in bed, at dinner parties or in restaurants and bars, as these financially-comfortable Parisians try to figure out the future for literature. They live in a kind of bubble, part of Assayas’ winking humor.

There is a lot of talking in this film but what marvelous dialog – smart, far-reaching, insightful and intriguing conversations about literature and publishing in a world of digital media, Twitter and e-readers, against a backdrop of a changing world. Or maybe one that “the more it changes, the more it remains the same,” as the saying goes.

Radiant and brilliant as ever, Juliette Binoche stars as Selena, the actress wife of Alain (Guillaume Canet), an elegantly-dressed editor at a revered old publishing house. One of Alain’s longtime writers is Leonard (a very funny Vincent Macaigne), a disheveled mess of a man whose appearance is the very opposite of polished Alain. Despite his rumpled appearance, Leonard’s novels are based on his own thinly-disguised romantic adventures. It is an example of Assayas’ sly humor that the dumpy Leonard is the one writing about his romances, and also that gorgeous Selena is secretly having an affair with him. But this is a French film, so of course Alain is having his own secret affair, with Laure (Christa Theret) the young business school grad the company brought on to handle “digital transition.” Meanwhile, Leonard lives with Valerie (comedian Nora Hamzawi, in a nice dramatic debut), the idealistic assistant to a socialist politician. It’s very French.

The French title of the film translates as “Double Lives,” which is actually a more apt title if less a literary allusion. Leonard calls his barely-fictionalized books “auto fiction.” When Selena’s husband Alain tells her Leonard has brought him a new book, she worries that her husband will figure out she is the inspiration for one of the characters. But Leonard has put him off the scent by hinting that another woman, a news anchor, is the inspiration. It hardly matters, as Alain is not very taken with Leonard’s new book and declines to publish it. Meanwhile, Selena worries that she is hurting her acting career if she signs up for a fourth season of the cop show she is starring in. The show is called “Collusion” but everyone calls it “Collision.”

There is a lot of talking in this film, so a lot of subtitles to read. But such engrossing conversations, touching on technology trends across several years, which blurs the time period. Blogging, Twitter, e-books, publishing on demand and other topic are all discussed, with some characters lamenting the death of reading while others maintain it is an age when there is more reading and writing than ever, just online, and tweets are like haiku. People reference literary figures and thought but also bandy about terms like “fake news”and mention films like“Fast and Furious,” in discussions that are both thought-provoking and slyly tongue-in-cheek.

The breath of the conversations are bracing, far-ranging and sometimes ridiculous but always interesting. At the same time these people talk, they go about their comfortable lives, in endless rounds of dinner parties or fashionable restaurants, disconnected from more ordinary concerns. The one character who is grounded in the real world is, in a sly ironic twist, Valerie, who works for a politician.

Sly humor runs throughout this playful, intelligent film. Like in his dramas, the characters have weighty, serious conversations about contemporary culture and life, but here those conversations might take place in bed or around a dinner table. Juliette, a classically trained actress, worries about signing up for a fourth season of the TV cop show she’s starring in. The show is called “Collusion” but everyone think it is called “Collision.” Leonard resets one of the sexual encounters in his novel from a movie theater showing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to a screening of the art-house drama “White Ribbon” because it sounds more classy, even if the film is about the rise of the Nazis which gives the book’s sex scene a creepy subtext. The characters discuss which actors they can get to read for audio books, and someone suggests Juliette Binoche for one – with Binoche right there in the scene. It is both funny and weird.

For those who like French sex comedy and books, Olivier’s clever sly comedy NON-FICTION is a treat not to miss. NON-FICTION, in French with English subtitles, opens Friday,June 14, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars