Cinema is more than entertainment. It is a way of thinking, remembering, and discovering the world. For decades, Phillip Lopate has been one of America’s most perceptive writers on film, bringing to every viewing the curiosity of a novelist, the precision of an essayist, and the passion of a lifelong cinephile. In these wide-ranging conversations with acclaimed critic Carrie Rickey, Lopate reflects on the films, filmmakers, critics, cities, books, and friendships that shaped his life, from childhood Saturdays in Brooklyn movie theaters to encounters with Antonioni, Ozu, Renoir, Godard, Wiseman, Scorsese, Kiarostami, and countless others. Along the way, he reveals how movies became not merely an object of study, but a way of seeing.
At once memoir, masterclass, and celebration of moviegoing itself, Essaying Movies is filled with sharp observations, unexpected enthusiasms, spirited disagreements, and decades of accumulated wisdom. Lopate ranges effortlessly across Hollywood and world cinema, literature and criticism, always asking the same essential question: how do great films deepen our understanding of ourselves and of others? Whether you are discovering these directors for the first time or have spent a lifetime in darkened theaters, this is an irresistible invitation to think harder, look closer, and fall in love with the movies all over again.
Phillip Lopate is the author of many acclaimed books, including the essay collections Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, and Portrait of My Body; the novels The Rug Merchant and Confessions of Summer; and the film books Totally, Tenderly, Tragically and American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents Until Now. He is the editor of several anthologies of essays and taught for many years in the Writing Program at Columbia University School of the Arts.
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