My Affair with Art House Cinema

Phillip Lopate is the model of the eloquent and incisive critic. His expertise in the personal essay gives his film criticism the depth and precision of finely crafted literature. He brings to the task a keen intelligence, broad knowledge, and a sympathetic warmth rare on the contemporary scene. He never promotes himself at the expense of the film at hand, but his willingness to admit his tastes (and to change his mind) shows a true humanistic sensibility at work. Every serious film admirer will value this book as an ideal guide to the treasures of arthouse cinema. -- David Bordwell, author of Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder
In this superb collection, Phillip Lopate goes where passion has taken him, which luckily for us is unbounded by the requirements and format of any single publication. My Affair with Art House Cinema combines some of the idiosyncratic notes of the personal essay with an easy command of film history, enhanced by Lopate's typically astute analysis of the way visual and compositional choices inform directorial sensibility. A treasure trove of a book which invites us to rethink the masterpieces of art house cinema and make acquaintance with unknown gems. -- Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films
Phillip Lopate's wonderfully written first-person film criticism is warm and affectionate, as well as smart and knowledgeable. Lopate is a scholar and a gentleman—even if, a true cinephile, he does like to kiss and tell. -- J. Hoberman, author of Film After Film: Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema?
Phillip Lopate is a convivial movie date, and his film essays have the poetry—and punch—of legendary sports reporters. For him, though, cinephilia is less a sport than a faith. Lopate's My Affair with Art House Cinema spans the last quarter-century of work by the likes of Chantal Akerman and Ingmar Bergman to Francois Truffaut and Frederick Wiseman. As he writes about the rhythms, themes, and framing of the movies he loves, his passion is contagious. -- Carrie Rickey, author of A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda
[A] splendid collection . . . The essays breeze by, enlivened by Lopate’s punchy prose and palpable love of cinema. Cinephiles will cherish this. * Publishers Weekly *
Erudite and comprehensible, this invitation to cinematic culture, just like encounters with many films, rewards repeat customers. * Library Journal *
His criticism is, dare one say it, adult . . . Lopate writes with an inviting brio, shaping complicated suppositions with a fluidity that doesn’t call attention to itself. -- Mario Naves * New York Sun *
Lopate is one of the best film critics we have, as well as being a prolific author and personal essayist (his forte) who writes widely about topics other than film. Despite his encyclopedic film knowledge, he brings the freshness and curiosity of an amateur and the passion of a lover to his writing about movies. * DavidSchwartz.com *
There is both clarity and subtlety in Lopate’s insights . . . My Affair with Art House Cinema is a dynamic book, encouraging the reader to seek out unseen cinematic “truffles” and to revisit and reappraise familiar territory. -- Muriel Zagha * Times Literary Supplement *
The pleasure of reading [Lopate] is that his perceptions, while robustly argued, have the flavor of
being freely arrived at: He is in thrall to no system, school, or mentor but to his own eyes and ears . . . Above all, he gives us a gift in trusting his instincts about what he likes and why. We are glad to be along for the guided tour. -- Peter Tonguette * Washington Examiner *
Lopate’s essays are short and written in his highly readable signature style, scholarly, witty, literate, but not stuffy. * Booklist *
[A] brilliant merger of journalistic writing and idiosyncratic, self-exploratory revelation. We art-house aficionados will read his elegant essays as long as our own remotes stay firmly in our movie-loving grasps. -- David Sterritt * Cinéaste *