USA,
1994, 119 min
Shown in 1995
CREDITS
- dir
-
Terry Zwigoff
- prod
-
Lynn O’Donnell, Terry Zwigoff
- cam
-
Maryse Allberti
- editor
-
Victor Livingston
-
COMMENTS
One of four Opening Night films. Terry Zwigoff and Maxon Crumb appeared in person.
Terry Zwigoff's phenomenal award-winning documentary is not only an intimate look at comic artist Robert Crumb, it's also a revealing portrait of Crumb's family—a positively weird yet completely fascinating clan of social misfits. Crumb's two sisters refused to be interviewed, but his brother Charles and Max participate at length in discussions of their childhood: their abusive father, their art (each is a talented graphic artist) and their relationships with each other. The reclusive Charles lives with his mother in a dark, shuttered apartment; Max describes a past incident of sexual assault in a drugstore before demonstrating his homemade bed of nails. Misogyny is stamped all over these boys, including Robert, who is big enough to admit it yet unwilling to compromise his work no matter what demons his mind dredges up. Despite the often troubling subject matter, Crumb—years in the making—is as entertaining as it is honest, giving new insight into the life and work of this legendary artist.
—Kurt Wolff
FACTOID #300
When she attended the 1980 San Francisco International Film Festival for a tribute, Federico Fellini’s wife and muse Giulietta Masina, admitted that she accepted a bit part in the American film The Madwoman of Chaillot (despite the fact that she could not speak English) just so she could get costar Katherine Hepburn’s autograph.
