Alexander Bakshy on Film, 1913-1935 (hardback)

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Alexander Bakshy (1885-1949) was a pioneering film critic, serving as the first movie critic for the Nation from 1927 to 1933 and becoming one of America’s first full-time professional film critics. Renowned for his foresight, he championed sound cinema in 1929 and played a crucial role in promoting film as an art form during the interwar years. As an innovative theorist, Bakshy applied self-reflexive modernism to cinema, emphasizing medium-awareness and anti-illusionism. The collection offers insightful commentary on significant films such as Chaplin’s City Lights, Eisenstein’s Ten Days That Shook the World, and Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, alongside analysis of influential directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra. It also showcases Bakshy’s theoretical essays on film acting, experimental theaters, and the transition from silent to sound cinema. This anthology uniquely spans both silent and sound periods, embracing black-and-white and color films, and presents Bakshy’s modernist perspective, finally giving him the recognition he deserves, previously reserved for critics like James Agee. R. J. Cardullo, a former film critic for the Hudson Review and a seasoned educator, has authored and edited numerous works on film. He holds degrees from Tulane and Yale and currently resides in Finland with his wife and their dog, Bertie.