From Library Journal
Part of this slim volume consists of acerbic commentaries, written from 1931 to 1955, on films, filmmakers, and even other film writers. Footnotes explain Borges's allusions and clarify the liberties he sometimes took with his quotes. There is a discussion of his presumed stylistic influence on French New Wave cinema and on more recent directors such as Nicholas Roeg. A final portion deals with the films actually based on the Argentinian's own writings, the most famous being Bertolucci's The Spider's Stratagem. Of interest primarily because of Borges's literary stature. Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
This is the first English translation of the collected film criticism of Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine author, essayist, poet, and film critic. This collection has been gathered by the Argentine fihn director Edgardo Cozarinsky. Cozarinsky also includes his own critiques of the film adapted from Borges' stories or those on which Borges worked. Disdaining novels due mostly to the sheer length necessary to develop and express an idea, Borges' own stories possessed a strong narrative and evoked a series of images that blurred the distinction between fiction an reality. He observed the same possibility for expression in film and saw his writing as "an idea of film." His reviews, like many of his stories, are brief, but they illustrate a unique insight not always shared by popular opinion. When discussing "Citizen Kane" or Chaplin's "City Lights," he does not hesitate to comment on the tediousness of the former or the ordinariness of the latter. His essay on the horrors of dubbing should be appreciated by any serious filingoer and holds just as true today as when first published in 1945. His unique perspective and ideas gave rise to the adjective "Borgesian," a term adopted by many film critics, just as "Kafkaesque" is used by literary critics. Cozarinsky includes his own double essay on the origin and development of the term '~Borgesian." Borges died in Geneva in 1986, but he left behind an impressive body of work. This book would be a valuable addition to any collection of serious film criticism, not just because of the validity of the reviews, but also because of the impact Borges had and continues to have on filnunakers and critics alike. -- From Independent Publisher
