Richard Corliss, 1944-2015

The above shot of Richard is from 1974. I purloined it from Film Comment magazine. You almost wanna say "Look at the you-know-what hipster," don't you? I didn't meet Richard until, oh, well over twenty years after this picture was taken, and his mode for dealing with younger film critics was quite a bit more avuncular than anything this shot suggests. I still love this shot of him because he has this air of both confidence and poetic dreaminess, and also of potential extreme volubility. These qualities are always is present in his writing, and were always present in his conversation. I think everybody who knew Richard even slightly, as I did, is heartbroken today...but also feels very lucky to have known him at all, because in addition to being a really terrific critic and journalist he was also BOTH a mensch and a prince. 

If you weren't lucky enough to have known him, well, there's a lot to read, but I'd actually start with the wonderful interview he did with David Thomson for the above-mentioned Film Comment, which captures his voice and his erudition and enthusiasm wonderfully. Then buy his BFI Film Classics monograph on Lolita, and mourn that he didn't do more stuff along these lines. Then curse the gods, or rather the devils, that have somehow conspired to keep from you from accessing "Afternoon With An Obsession," Richard's late-'70s Village Voice profile of Carole Laure, perhaps the only male-written "I'm smitten with this film star" piece that will not inspire instantaneous projectile vomiting (Anthony Lane ought to have looked it up before meeting Scarlett Johansson). Richard Zoglin's reminiscence of him at Time's site is also very good. But mainly read Richard, always a delight. And you know, he wasn't really wrong about Speed Racer either. 

Comments

[Stephanie Zacharek]

This is really lovely, Glenn, and captures what made Richard such a great colleague and wonderful critic. Plus, that picture -- ! He looks like a poet, which I guess he was.

[Dennis Cozzalio]

Glenn, thanks for this heartfelt appreciation. I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Corliss last year at the TCM Film Festival-- he was signing copies of his new book-- and I had to miss him. Now I really do. He was an important voice for me dating from about the time of that picture. I wouldn't see the world of movies, or the world, quite the way I do without that voice. And thanks for the reminder that he was among the few (including you and me) who had kind words for SPEED RACER.

[george]

Sorry to hear this. I loved his writing, especially in the long pop-culture pieces he wrote for Time.com titled "That Old Feeling." They're worth seeking out.

[colinr]

That moment at the climax of Speed Racer when the environment melts and swirls into abstraction is almost literally transcendental.

[Oliver_C]

No version of 'Speed Racer', indigenous or adapted, ever interested me. David Fincher and Naoki Urasawa would be a match made in film heaven however, as would Takeshi Kitano and the loansharking epic 'Naniwa Kin'yudo'.

[haice]

Those Film Comments in the 70s when Corliss was editor are still awesome issues.

[Michael Dempsey]

We all must depart one day, of course.

But losing this humane, witty, truly distinctive and therefore irreplaceable writer at only 71 is severely disheartening nonetheless.

Most of all to his wife and other loved ones. Special condolences to them.

But also to those, including me, whose lives his lively, stringent, loving commentaries over the years so greatly enriched.

[Oliver_C]

R.I.P. also Australian cinematographer Andrew Lesnie ('Babe'), who departed 'Mission: Impossible II' under a cloud of controversy but was vindicated by his Oscar-winning work on 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy.

[george]

Richards Corliss and Shickel on Scorsese, 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwGA71ZoDH8