A Cinephile Under the Influence

For more than half a century, David Sterritt has been one of America’s most distinctive and trusted critical voices, championing both the avant-garde and the mainstream with equal curiosity, rigor, and generosity. In this wide-ranging book-length conversation with cultural critic Mikita Brottman, Sterritt revisits a lifetime at the movies: from his early years at The Christian Science Monitor through his work with NPR, Variety, the New York Film Festival, and the National Society of Film Critics. Along the way he recalls encounters with Hitchcock, Truffaut, Scorsese, and Sophia Loren; debates about auteur theory, philosophy, and popular culture; and the pleasures and pitfalls of a career spent in the dark, watching films, viewing plays, and listening to music with relentless passion and critical clarity.

At once personal memoir and cultural history, A Cinephile Under the Influence is an absorbing portrait of a critic whose devotion to cinema has shaped how generations of readers see and think about movies, music, and theater.

David Sterritt is an American film critic, scholar, and educator known for his insightful writing on modern and avant-garde cinema. A longtime critic for The Christian Science Monitor (1968–2005), he has also chaired the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle. Sterritt has taught at institutions including the Maryland Institute College of Art and is the author of numerous books on filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard, as well as studies on the Beat Generation and postwar culture.

^{A Cinephile Under the Influence (2025)
Paperback ISBN 979-8-89976-029-7 226pp 5×9.2 inches
Hardback ISBN 979-8-89976-030-3 226pp 5×9.2 inches}