Persistence of Vision, a lively and eclectic collection of criticism first published by the Wisconsin Film Society Press in 1968, virtually vanished from view after its original limited release. But it was hailed by reviewer Ernest Callenbach, editor of Film Quarterly, for its “excellent and often iconoclastic articles and reviews, of both early and recent films; features ‘a Casablanca dossier,’ several good pieces on Welles by the editor, and sometimes mordant re-examination of classics by Arthur Lennig and others.”
Editor Joseph McBride, who like other contributors went on to become a major film scholar, rounded up contributions by members of the leading film society at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and their mentors, including Andrew Sarris. McBride provides a new introduction situating Persistence of Vision in the context of the vibrant “Madison film mafia” scene and its role in helping found the nascent field of film studies. Essays on such filmmakers as Keaton, Stroheim, Dreyer, Griffith, Ford, Gance, Flaherty, Cocteau, Visconti, Hitchcock, and Shirley Clarke; stars such as Bogart, Fields, Karloff, Lugosi, and Poitier; and their works from throughout the range of film history into the late 1960s remain fresh and provocative today.
Table of contents here.
A buried treasure from the great era of auteurist cinephilia, this restored critical anthology has permanent importance. The section on Orson Welles alone is invaluable, and the essays on other Hollywood and European directors are uniformly informative, well-judged, and enjoyable. Welcome to a time capsule and a rediscovered classic.
James Naremore, author of
The Magic World of Orson Welles
Joseph McBride is a film historian, biographer, and screenwriter whose books on directors such as John Ford, Frank Capra, and Steven Spielberg have made him one of the foremost chroniclers of Hollywood cinema. A former journalist and reviewer for Daily Variety and co-writer of Rock ’n’ Roll High School, he is Professor Emeritus of the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University. In 2025, Sticking Place Books published an interview book with McBride entitled I Loved Movies, But…
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