American film critic
James Lewis Hoberman (born March 14, 1949)[1] [2] is an American film critic , journalist,[3] author and academic. He began working at The Village Voice in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic from 1988 to 2012.[4] In 1981, he coined the term "vulgar modernism" to describe the "looney " fringes of American popular culture (e.g. the animators Tex Avery and Chuck Jones , MAD Magazine , TV pioneer Ernie Kovacs and the films of Frank Tashlin ).[5] [6] [7]
Early and personal life
Hoberman was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn . His ancestors immigrated to the United States from Poland , Ukraine , Austria-Hungary , and Alsace-Lorraine .[2] [8] He grew up primarily in Fresh Meadows, Queens .[2] Hoberman completed his B.A. degree at Binghamton University and his M.F.A. at Columbia University . At Binghamton, prominent experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs both instructed and influenced him.[9]
Hoberman and his wife, a social worker, married in 1974. They have two daughters.[2] He is an atheist.[2]
Career
After completing his MFA Hoberman worked for The Village Voice as under Andrew Sarris . Hoberman specialized in writing about experimental film for the weekly paper: his first published review (in 1977) was of David Lynch 's seminal debut film Eraserhead . In the mid-1970s, Hoberman contributed text articles to the underground comix anthology Arcade , edited by Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith .[10] From 2009 to 2012, Hoberman was the senior film editor at the Village Voice , where he was also an active leader in the staff union.[citation needed ]
Since 1990, Hoberman has taught cinema history at Cooper Union . He has also lectured on film at Harvard and New York University . In addition to his academic and professional career, Hoberman is the author of several important books on cinema, including a collaboration with fellow film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum , entitled Midnight Movies , published in 1983.
At the 2008 San Francisco International Film Festival , Hoberman was honored with the prestigious Mel Novikoff Award , an annual award "bestowed on an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public's knowledge and appreciation of world cinema."[11] Hoberman appears in the 2009 documentary film For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism , recalling his first movie memory, going with his mother to see Cecil B. DeMille 's The Greatest Show On Earth (1952), and how he was mesmerized by a scene in that film that depicts a train crash.
In January 2012, the Village Voice laid off Hoberman in a move to cut costs. Hoberman said, "I have no regrets and whatever sadness I feel is outweighed by a sense of gratitude. Thirty-three years is a long time to be able to do something that you love to do, to champion things you want to champion, and to even get paid for it."[4]
Following his tenure at the Village Voice , Hoberman has contributed articles to other publications, including The Guardian [12] and The New York Review of Books . He also contributes regularly to Film Comment , The New York Times , and The Virginia Quarterly Review .[13]
Hoberman participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll , where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: Au Hasard Balthazar , Flaming Creatures , The Girl from Chicago , Man with a Movie Camera , Pather Panchali , The Rules of the Game , Rose Hobart , Shoah , Two or Three Things I Know About Her... , and Vertigo .[14]
He is interviewed in the HBO documentary Spielberg to give insight into Steven Spielberg 's work.
Bibliography
Books
Essays and reporting
References
^ Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding WorldCat Identities linked authority file (LAF) .
^ a b c d e "Jim Hoberman's Oral History" . Yiddish Book Center . Retrieved January 19, 2017 .
^ Wemple, Erik (January 5, 2012). "J. Hoberman departs the Village Voice" . Washington Post .
^ a b Shaw, Lucas (January 5, 2012). "Fired Village Voice Movie Critic J. Hoberman Pens His Farewell Note" . Reuters. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2020 .
^ Vulgar Modernism - Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
^ Vulgar Modernism - Artfourm International
^ Film Theory - Google Books (pg.171)
^ Nyfcc.com Archived December 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ Shamsian, Jacob (May 5, 2015), "J. Hoberman: Once a film student, now living the dream life" , Pipe Dream .
^ Arcade entry , Grand Comics Database. Accessed October 22, 2016.
^ "53rd San Francisco International Film Festival, the Best 15 Days of the Year for Film Lovers and Party Goers" . San Francisco Film Society . March 30, 2010. Retrieved September 1, 2017 .
^ Hoberman, J (February 22, 2012). "J Hoberman" . The Guardian . London.
^ "J. Hoberman" , The New York Review of Books .
^ "Jim Hoberman" at BFI .
^ Reviews Christian Petzold 's Transit (2018) and Christian Petzold : The State We Are In , a film series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, November 30 – December 13, 2018.
External links
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