J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman | |
|---|---|
 Hoberman in 2012 | |
| Born | James Lewis Hoberman March 14, 1949 New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Education | Binghamton University(BA) Columbia University(MFA) |
| Period | 1977–present |
| Subject | Film |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| j-hoberman.com | |
James Lewis Hoberman(born March 14, 1949)[1][2]is an Americanfilm critic,journalist,[3]author and academic. He began working atThe Village Voicein 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 Americanpopular culture(e.g. the animatorsTex AveryandChuck Jones,MADMagazine,TV pioneerErnie Kovacsand the films ofFrank Tashlin).[5][6][7]
Early and personal life[edit]
Hoberman was born to a Jewish family inBrooklyn.His ancestors immigrated to the United States fromPoland,Ukraine,Austria-Hungary,andAlsace-Lorraine.[2][8]He grew up primarily inFresh Meadows, Queens.[2]Hoberman completed his B.A. degree atBinghamton Universityand his M.F.A. atColumbia University.At Binghamton, prominentexperimental filmmakerKen Jacobsboth 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[edit]
After completing hisMFAHoberman worked forThe Village VoiceunderAndrew Sarris.Hoberman specialized in writing aboutexperimental filmfor the weekly paper: his first published review (in 1977) was ofDavid Lynch's seminal debut filmEraserhead.In the mid-1970s, Hoberman contributed text articles to theunderground comixanthologyArcade,edited byArt SpiegelmanandBill Griffith.[10]From 2009 to 2012, Hoberman was the senior film editor at theVillage Voice,where he was also an active leader in the staff union.[citation needed]
Since 1990, Hoberman has taught cinema history atCooper Union.He has also lectured on film atHarvardandNew 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 criticJonathan Rosenbaum,entitledMidnight Movies,published in 1983.
At the 2008San Francisco International Film Festival,Hoberman was honored with the prestigiousMel 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 filmFor the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism,recalling his first movie memory, going with his mother to seeCecil B. DeMille'sThe Greatest Show On Earth(1952), and how he was mesmerized by a scene in that film that depicts a train crash.
In January 2012, theVillage Voicelaid 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 theVillage Voice,Hoberman has contributed articles to other publications, includingThe Guardian[12]andThe New York Review of Books.He also contributes regularly toFilm Comment,The New York Times,andThe Virginia Quarterly Review.[13]
Hoberman participated in the2012Sight & Soundcritics' 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...,andVertigo.[14]
He is interviewed in theHBOdocumentarySpielbergto give insight intoSteven Spielberg's work.
Bibliography[edit]
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Books[edit]
- Home made movies: twenty years of American 8mm & Super-8 films.New York:Anthology Film Archives.1981.ISBN978-0317559583.
- Hoberman, J.;Rosenbaum, Jonathan(1983).Midnight Movies.Harper & Row.ISBN978-0060909901.
- Dennis Hopper: From Method to Madness.Minneapolis:Walker Art Center.1988.ISBN978-0935640274.
- Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Film and Other Media.Philadelphia:Temple University Press.1991.ISBN978-0877228660.
- Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds.The Museum of Modern Art,Schocken Books.1992.ISBN978-0805241075.
- 42nd Street.BFI Film Classics. London:British Film Institute.1993.ISBN978-0851703558.
- The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism.Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1999.ISBN978-1566397674.
- On Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures (and Other Secret-flix of Cinemaroc).Granary Books,Hips Road. 2001.ISBN978-1887123525.
- The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties.New York:The New Press.2003.ISBN978-1565849785.
- The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle.Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2003.ISBN978-1566399968.
- An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War.New York:The New Press.2011.ISBN978-1595580054.
- Film After Film: (Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema?).New York:Verso Books.2012.ISBN978-1781681435.
- Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan.New York:The New Press.2019.ISBN978-1595580061.
- Duck Soup.BFI Film Classics. London:British Film Institute.2021.ISBN978-1839022258.
Essays and reporting[edit]
- Hoberman, J. (March 7–20, 2019). "The waiting rooms of history".The New York Review of Books.66(4): 20, 22.[15]
References[edit]
- ^Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via correspondingWorldCatIdentitieslinked authority file (LAF).
- ^abcde"Jim Hoberman's Oral History".Yiddish Book Center.RetrievedJanuary 19,2017.
- ^Wemple, Erik (January 5, 2012)."J. Hoberman departs the Village Voice".Washington Post.
- ^abShaw, Lucas (January 5, 2012)."Fired Village Voice Movie Critic J. Hoberman Pens His Farewell Note".Reuters. Archived fromthe originalon September 1, 2017.RetrievedNovember 28,2020.
- ^Vulgar Modernism - Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
- ^Vulgar Modernism - Artfourm International
- ^Film Theory - Google Books (pg.171)
- ^Nyfcc.comArchivedDecember 11, 2008, at theWayback Machine
- ^Shamsian, Jacob (May 5, 2015),"J. Hoberman: Once a film student, now living the dream life",Pipe Dream.
- ^Arcadeentry,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.RetrievedSeptember 1,2017.
- ^Hoberman, J (February 22, 2012)."J Hoberman".The Guardian.London.
- ^"J. Hoberman",The New York Review of Books.
- ^"Jim Hoberman"atBFI.
- ^ReviewsChristian Petzold'sTransit(2018) andChristian Petzold: The State We Are In,a film series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, November 30 – December 13, 2018.
External links[edit]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1949 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American journalists
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American journalists
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- American film critics
- American male journalists
- American male non-fiction writers
- American people of German-Jewish descent
- American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
- American people of Polish-Jewish descent
- American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
- Binghamton University alumni
- Columbia University School of the Arts alumni
- Critics employed by The New York Times
- Harvard University staff
- Jewish American atheists
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- Journalists from New York City
- National Society of Film Critics Members
- New York University faculty
- The Guardian journalists
- The New York Review of Books people
- The Village Voice people
- Writers from Queens, New York