Crumb (film)

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Crumb
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTerry Zwigoff
Produced byTerry Zwigoff
Lynn O'Donnell
Starring
CinematographyMaryse Alberti
Edited byVictor Livingston
Music byDavid Boeddinghaus
Production
company
Superior Pictures
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • September 10, 1994 (1994-09-10)
(Toronto International Film Festival)
  • September 27, 1994 (1994-09-27)
(New York Film Festival)
  • April 28, 1995 (1995-04-28)
(USA)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish
Box office$3,174,695[1]

Crumb is a 1994 American

Criterion Collection released the film on DVD and Blu-ray[3] on August 10, 2010.[4]

Synopsis

Robert Crumb, a pioneer in the

consumerist culture
and his darkly cynical perspective on life. He is seen sketching his surroundings at cafés and on sidewalks, attending an exhibition of his work, and interacting with friends and family.

Viewers learn about Robert's career through interviews with his contemporaries

ascetic
life in a dilapidated hotel, meditating, begging on the street, and occasionally drawing or painting. All three brothers mention the authoritarian behavior of their father and talk about the comic books Charles made them make when they were children.

Robert is shown drawing with Sophie and Jesse, his son with Dana, with whom Robert has become reacquainted after abandoning his family to move to

animated film based on his character Mr. Natural
.

Production

Robert Crumb initially did not want to make the film, but eventually agreed. There was a rumor, accidentally created by Roger Ebert, that Terry Zwigoff, who was friends with Crumb, made Crumb cooperate by threatening to shoot himself. Ebert later clarified this in an audio commentary he did with Zwigoff in 2006 and a review he wrote in 2005, where he said: "That never happened, but it may be true that Zwigoff’s life was saved because he did make the film."[6]

During the nine years it took to make the documentary, Zwigoff said he was “averaging an income of about $200 a month and living with back pain so intense that I spent three years with a loaded gun on the pillow next to my bed, trying to get up the nerve to kill myself.”[6] He felt the involvement of Maxon and, particularly, Charles was central to the film, which led him to choose "Crumb" as the title.[7]

The film is "presented" by David Lynch, though he had no actual involvement in its making. In the commentary Zwigoff did with Ebert, he says that Lynch did not respond to a request for funds until after the film was already finished, but they agreed to include Lynch's name in the advertising and credits to attract more viewers.

Reception

Crumb was met with wide acclaim from critics, earning a 95% rating on

Desson Howe's review was similarly positive.[12] The San Francisco Chronicle rated the film as "wild applause", with critic Edward Guthmann calling it "one of the most provocative, haunting documentaries of the last decade." He also noted that Robert Crumb and wife Aline had drawn a "scornful" cartoon about the film in The New Yorker.[13]

Despite such strong reviews, Crumb was not nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (the nominating committee reportedly stopped watching the film after only twenty minutes). The Oscar snub of Crumb, following the snubbing of the equally acclaimed Hoop Dreams the previous year, caused a media furor that caused the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to revamp its documentary nomination process.[14] Zwigoff stated in an interview that "the Academy Awards thing had much more to do with the fact that at the time, a lot of the documentary membership was made up of distributors of documentary films. The rules have changed since then. But they would just vote for the films they distributed because it was in their financial interest to do so. I came to learn that later. At the time, I just assumed they were disgusted with the film."[15]

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named Crumb the 14th best film of the last 25 years.[16] In 2012, Slant Magazine ranked the film #74 on its list of the 100 Best Films of the 1990s, calling it "Arguably the greatest of all nonfiction films."[17]

Although Zwigoff only filmed Robert Crumb's brothers with their consent, some have questioned whether they were able to provide that consent in a meaningful way.[18]

Awards

The film won several major critical accolades awarded for films released in 1995, including:

See also

References

  1. ^ Crumb at Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ Anderson, Jeffrey M. (May 20, 2012). "My ten great films". Jeffrey M. Anderson blog. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  3. ^ Criterion Collection
  4. ^ James Reviews Terry Zwigoff's Crumb (Criterion Collection DVD Review-CriterionCast.com
  5. ^ Lovece, Frank (June 2, 1995). "A new documentary focuses on Robert Crumb -- Crumb highlights the cartoonist's dysfunctional family". Entertainment Weekly.
  6. ^
    Chicago Sun Times
    .
  7. JSTOR 1213313
    .
  8. ^ "Crumb". Rotten Tomatoes.
  9. ^ 'Screening Room - "Siskel and Ebert" Top Ten Films (1980-1998)' - 1995 Archived September 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Gene Siskel, the Official Site. The Estate of Gene Siskel. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  10. Chicago Sun Times
    . Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  11. ^ Anderson, Jeffrey M. (April 28, 1995). "Crumb (1995)". Combustible Celluoid. Archived from the original on January 19, 2001. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  12. Howe, Desson (May 26, 1995). Crumb. The Washington Post
  13. The San Francisco Chronicle
    . Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  14. ^ Crumb. AllMovie.com
  15. ^ Murray, Noel (August 10, 2010). Interview with Terry Zwigoff. AVClub.com.
  16. ^ The New Classics: Movies Archived September 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Entertainment Weekly. #999-1000 June 27, 2008.
  17. ^ "The 100 Best Films of the 1990s". Slant Magazine. November 5, 2012.
  18. .
  19. Filmmaker Magazine. Archived from the original on May 24, 1997. Retrieved November 17, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link
    )()
  20. ^ Sundance 1995 Award Winners". sundance.org. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  21. ^ a b c d e f Guthmann, Edward (December 20, 1995). "Crumb Racks Up Critics' Honors / Documentary still can't get Oscar bid". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  22. ^ "Previous Awards - Awards for 1995" Archived November 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. National Board of Review. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  23. ^ "Past Awards" Archived March 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. National Society of Film Critics. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  24. ^ "1995 Awards". New York Film Critics Circle. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  25. ^ "Previous Years Winners" Archived June 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (1995) (rendered in Flash). Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  26. ^ "Past Award Winners" Archived October 8, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Boston Film Critics Society. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  27. ^ "Film and Video Awards: International Documentary Association: Feature Documentaries IDA Awards" (1995). Media Resources Center. University of California at Berkeley. Retrieved November 17, 2012.

External links

Awards
Preceded by Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
1995
Succeeded by