“Film after Film, or What Became of 21st-Century Cinema” is a collection of articles by J. Hoberman published by Verso this year. Most of them appeared originally in the Village Voice, the N.Y. weekly that employed Hoberman for 33 years. With his termination in January of this year, the paper cut its final ties to the long and storied journalistic traditions that made it a must-read each week. As a social critic with Marxist leanings and a partisan of the cinematic avant-garde, Hoberman was a symbol of the paper at its best. The undistinguished bunch that has taken his place are mostly interested in advising the readers how to be entertained for $12 or so. As such they perform a function not that much different from the massage parlor ads at the back of the paper that probably provide most of its revenue nowadays.
full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/19/cinema-after-911/
Never saw him as a Leftist of any stripe. J.Hoberman was a major supporter of “Gulf War I,” as it’s known. An avid Zionist. And a promoter of tripe such as “When the Cat’s Away.” Still, some of his writings were thought-provoking for a giveaway rag.
Comment by kjs — October 22, 2012 @ 7:47 pm