Manny Farber Overview

Manny Farber, though still much-revered as a film critic, eschewed film in favor of painting. Farber began writing film reviews for The New Republic in 1942. He continued his film career through the 1970s, writing most notably for publications such as... [more]

Manny Farber, though still much-revered as a film critic, eschewed film in favor of painting. Farber began writing film reviews for The New Republic in 1942. He continued his film career through the 1970s, writing most notably for publications such as Film Comment. As his book "Negative Space" (1970) revealed, his dense, surprising prose is extraordinarily rich in ideas; he possessed a keen ability to articulate otherwise impressionistic observations about film. His criticism clearly came from the point of view of an artist who respects filmmaking as a potential art, not as a commercial product. The notoriously "cantankerous," "cranky," and "curmudgeon-like" tone of his critic's voice derives from his personal frustration with the state of contemporary filmmaking. He often felt that film was being abused or prevented from realizing its artistic possibilities. Not surprisingly, by the 1970s his work as a painter began to overshadow his writing; gradually, painting replaced film criticism altogether. He taught painting at the University of California, San Diego and died in August 2008. [show less]