How to Go to the Movies (Stonewall Inn Editions) [Paperback]

Quentin Crisp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1991 | Series: Stonewall Inn Editions

Since moving to New York City over a decade ago, Quentin Crisp has brought his love of the cinema and his notorious wit together in a series of essays on films and film stars. A veteran film-goer of seventy years who has kept a vigilant eye on changing Hollywood styles and the public tastes that follow, Mr. Crisp discusses both films and stars with his typical panache and dexterity and leads his readers with polite madness to a clear, straightforward moral, proving himself to be an unexpected champion of good sense. Along the way Mr. Crisp shares his personal encounters with the likes of Lillian Gish, John Hurt, David Hockney, Divine, Sting, and Geraldine Page. Prefaced by longer essays on the essence of stardom, the nature of Hollywood, and the deplorable state of that town today, Mr. Crisp's book is a delight to read.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of film reviews from Christopher Street magazine, Crisp ( The Naked Civil Servant ) declares that "the way to go to movies is incessantly . . . reverently . . . critically," yet he follows only two of his dicta. His almost compulsive movie-going is the basis for highly entertaining reviews that reveal a shameless appreciation for stars--the bigger the name, the better--as well as a fairly simplistic critical approach. But what sets Crisp's work apart from most film reviews is humor ( My Dinner with Andre is "as boring as being alive"); his eye for style (actor Richard Gere looks like Errol Flynn "with the edges beveled"); and a store of off-the-wall remarks ("Mr. Proust was a weirdo"). Unfortunately, the repetition of certain pet peeves (especially the evils of television) underscores a lack of judicious editing, and Crisp's star-worship reveals a fairly reactionary view of the sexes, as in his lamentation that women's liberation "was the final nail hammered into the coffin of stardom."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

British-born Crisp, one-time flamboyant advocate for gay rights and author of The Naked Civil Servant (LJ 10/15/87) and How To Become a Virgin (LJ 1/1/82), has, for the past ten years or so, written on film and reviewed films for Christopher Street magazine. This work is a compilation of some of those reviews, together with brief essays on topics such as the nature of film stardom, the "new" Hollywood, and prominent film actresses of the 1930s. Now over 80, Crisp has lost little of his quirky wit (he not only reviews the films but their audiences and the movie theaters as well), and many of his comments are both provocative and insightful. Because of the numerous New York allusions and the many gay-themed films reviewed, this is probably most suitable for larger cinema collections.
-Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 2nd edition (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312054440
• ISBN-13: 978-0312054441
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,482,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A tasty bon-bon, May 5, 2000

By 

David J. Loftus (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Go to the Movies (Stonewall Inn Editions) (Paperback)

Quentin Crisp passed away last year at the golden age of 92 -- an infinitely wise child who managed the difficult trick of never growing up. What a loss to society and the English language!

As a film critic, he was not in a class with, say, Stanley Kauffmann for discussion of film quality and technique, or John Simon for bitchiness, but Crisp was a lovely English stylist, and his unique point of view made him a delightful companion at the movies.

Even if you don't agree with his judgments, they are a hoot to read. This book has a sunny quality that contrasts with the acrid humor of his autobio, _The Naked Civil Servant_. While you might visualize him telling you that story over a stiff drink in a dark corner, the tone of this book is more like a breezy meeting at a teahouse.

Of Cher, he writes, "She is tall and rangy and so lean that you fear that her collarbone will saw its way through her hazardously thin shoulder straps." Since "the French appear to think that they invented flirtation ... Their films on this subject are almost always pervaded by a cloying quality of self-congratulation." Of "My Dinner With Andre," he says, "I could not bring myself to make a report on it because it was as boring as being alive." Mr. Depardieu is "the European equivalent of Mr. Nolte, though he lacks the golden skin tone, as of a basted chicken, which adds so greatly to the allure of the American star."

Most of the pieces in this collection were written for a column in Christopher Street magazine, and the audience for that publication must be kept in mind with regard to some of his film choices -- and as Crisp, well into his 70s and 80s at the time, makes remarks such as "sex is a mistake" and "homosexual men are pathologically incapable of making love with their friends or making friends of their lovers...."

Call this a lightweight junket. You won't remember much of it when you are finished, but it sure is a fun ride along the way.