No Film Left Behind
'Variety' critic Joe Leydon's program for cinema literacy
By Spencer Parsons, Fri., Oct. 22, 2004
"It's not a list of the greatest movies ever made. There are too many books like that. You don't need mine," says award-winning Variety critic Joe Leydon, of his Guide to Essential Movies You Must See. "But when TV Guide references Rashomon to describe an episode of Seinfeld," he continues, "it's a good idea to see Rashoman, right?" So he scanned newspapers and magazines to suss out a list of films with the greatest influence on movies, language, and culture, considering their places in history and their lessons for filmmakers. From Citizen Kane to Plan 9 From Outer Space, the result is an informed and opinionated beginner's phrase book for the lingua franca of cinema. Leydon will discuss the book and sign copies at a special screening of The 400 Blows he is presenting at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Oct. 21.
Austin Chronicle: So what's cinema literacy in the age of Netflix?
Joe Leydon: Well, you should never confuse availability with exposure. It is much easier to see classics today than 10 years ago, so there's no excuse not to have seen a thing or two. Yet I've been shocked to mention certain important titles to some critics, and they don't know what I'm talking about. François Truffaut warned young filmmakers that their work would be judged by reviewers who have never seen anything by F.W. Murnau, but now you must reconcile to critics never having seen The 400 Blows, which is the movie I'm showing at the Alamo.
AC: Why The 400 Blows?
JL: Well, this film was the fruition of an attitude, a theory put forward by Truffaut, that a film should be as direct to the audience as a letter from an intimate friend. It's as autobiographical as films get, and you'd be surprised at the filmmakers over the years who have told me how deeply they've been affected by it. It leaves an enormous lasting impact, an idea that you can make a movie about your life and your own experience, to make it the stuff of art.
AC: But then shouldn't we be looking to life instead of to movies?
JL: Yes, and this is the dark side of film literacy. You see a lot of movies now by people who have seen lots of movies, but not a lot of life. So never mind breakthrough movies, never mind revolutionary movies: How many do you see today that deal in an uncompromising, unromanticized fashion with how we live now? Then again, some things you see – and you realize how they can shape opinions – change the way you think and feel. And maybe it's temporary, but it gets things started. That's what movies can do. 
The Austin Chronicle presents Joe Leydon in Person: Movies You Must See at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (409 Colorado) Thursday, Oct.21, at 7pm. Leydon will screen The 400 Blows and will sign copies of his book, courtesy of BookPeople.
