Customer Reviews

How to go to the movies

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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.