Manny Farber Quotes

• I have a great love of the actual.

  Manny Farber

  Great Love

  4 Copy quote

• Capra is an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director. But all of his details give the impression of contrived effect.

  Manny Farber

  Home, Giving, Way

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.600, Library of America

  6 Copy quote

• A peculiar fact about termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss art is that it goes always forward, eating its own boundaries, and, likely as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity.

  Manny Farber

  Art, Moss, Peculiar

  Manny Farber (2009). “Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies”, p.135, Da Capo Press

  9 Copy quote

• I think it's sinful to give the audience material it knows already, whether the material is about race relations or the car culture or the depiction and placement of a candy bar.

  Manny Farber

  Thinking, Race, Giving

  Interview with Richard Thompson, www.screeningthepast.com. 1977.

  4 Copy quote

• The cold, mean 'Sunset Boulevard' - a beautiful title, though I suspect it was shot on another boulevard - is further proof of the resurgence of art in the Hollywood of super-craftsmen with insuperable taste.

  Manny Farber

  Beautiful, Art, Sunset

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.645, Library of America

  52 Copy quote

• The Big Sleep' would have been a more effective study of nightmarish existence had the detective been more complicated and had more curiosity been shown about his sweetheart's relation to the crime.

  Manny Farber

  Sleep, Curiosity, Detectives

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.564, Library of America

  6 Copy quote

• The Big Sleep' is an unsentimental, surrealist excitement in which most of the men in Hollywood's underworld are murdered and most of the women go for an honest but not unwilling private sleuth (Humphrey Bogart).

  Manny Farber

  Sleep, Men, Hollywood

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.562, Library of America

  52 Copy quote

• Frank Capra, Hollywood's Horatio Alger, lights with more cinematic know-how and zeal than any other director to convince movie audiences that American life is exactly like the 'Saturday Evening Post' covers of Norman Rockwell. 'It's A Wonderful Life,' the latest example of Capracorn, shows his art at a hysterical pitch.

  Manny Farber

  Art, Light, Evening

  4 Copy quote

• Before seeing 'The Pride of the Yankees,' you may or may not know that the Yankees referred to are the ones who win the World Series each year. After seeing it you will find that the reference is indirect.

  Manny Farber

  Pride, Winning, Yankees

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.88, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

• I get a great laugh from artists who ridicule the critics as parasites and artists manqués — sucha horrible joke. I can’t imagine a more perfect art form, a moreperfect career than criticism. I can’t imagine anything more valuableto do.

  Manny Farber

  Art, Careers, Perfect

  4 Copy quote

• Henry V' is a great deal more than almost any other hell-bent-for-armor movie that you've seen.

  Manny Farber

  Armor, Hell, Henry V

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.544, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

• The new Disney cartoon 'Bambi' is interesting because it's the first one that's been entirely unpleasant.

  Manny Farber

  Interesting, Cartoon, Firsts

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.79, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

• Sunset Boulevard' - the story of Hollywood movies draped on a depressing sex affair - is an uncompromising study of American decadence displaying a sad, worn, methodical beauty few films have had since the late twenties.

  Manny Farber

  Depressing, Sex, Sunset

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.644, Library of America

  7 Copy quote

• From Here to Eternity' happens to be fourteen-carat entertainment. The main trouble is that it is too entertaining for a film in which love affairs flounder, one sweet guy is beaten to death, and a man of high principles is mistaken for a saboteur and killed on a golf course.

  Manny Farber

  Sweet, Golf, Men

  14 Copy quote

• Orson Welles's second 'I-did-it' should show once and for all that film making, radio and the stage are three different guys better kept separated. 'The Magnificent Ambersons' is one of those versions of the richest family in town during the good old days.

  Manny Farber

  Guy, Towns, Different

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.91, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

• Actually, what will be shown from here to eternity will be Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr cavorting on the beach. From Here to Eternity must have seemed like a chore to its director, Fred Zinnemann.

  Manny Farber

  Beach, Directors, Eternity

  4 Copy quote

• There are several types of movie space, the three most important being: (1) the field of the screen, (2) the psychological space of the actor, and (3) the area of experience and geography that the film covers.

  Manny Farber

  Space, Important, Three

  Manny Farber (2009). “Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies”, p.3, Da Capo Press

  4 Copy quote

• The story of Warner Brothers' movie, 'Mildred Pierce,' recounts the enormous and unrewarded sacrifices that a mother (Joan Crawford) makes for her spoiled, greedy daughter (Ann Blythe).

  Manny Farber

  Daughter, Mother, Brother

  Manny Farber (2016). “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Faber: A Special Publication of The Library of America”, p.517, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

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