As conceived and edited together by Alexander Olch, this documentary pays homage to the life of the late filmmaker and professor Richard P. "Dick" Rogers (Pictures from a Revolution). Director of the Harvard University Film Study Center, Rogers died in July 2001. He left behind boxes upon boxes of footage intended for an unrealized autobiographical film; working together with Rogers's wife and creative partner, Susan Meiselas (who assumed the role of producer here), Olch began assembling the
footage in its intended form. The resultant work sits poised halfway between fiction and documentary; it employs a linear chronology that spans Rogers's life, from his youth to his premature passing from melanoma at the age of 57. Olch uses the loosely-knit footage to meditate, pensively, on the nature of film, art, and the cycle of life, as well as Rogers's need to create for the sake of progeny. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
A remarkable documentary attempt to reconcile Rogers's sense of personal, professional, and artistic malaise, which culminated in his decades-long attempt to make a film about his life.
Olch doesn't make it easy to identify with Rogers and his stylish existence, but that choice begins to pay off gradually as the fragments start to add up to something more.
A better question, it seems to me, is not whether one has a right to complain about one's life, but whether or not one can make an interesting film about it. There's not much evidence here that Rogers would ever have succeeded...
In embracing Richard Rogers' style and adopting his tone, Alexander Olch creates a documentary that's as much a respectful, moving tribute to Rogers, as it is the projected realization of Rogers' intended cinematic autobiography.
Late in this meandering film, Rogers' romantic infidelities and the onset of illness add some much-needed dynamics, but even when it's just shooting the breeze, The Windmill Movie is captivating.
This movie should be unbearable; instead it's grotesquely fascinating. Rogers' striking early short Quarry precedes the main feature, demonstrating the man's considerable talent.
Unfortunately, a man died (from cancer) in the making of this explicitly introspective life tome; it was the only way he saw to complete his masterpiece.
There hasn't been as good a film of this type in this country since Tarnation, which means Olch's movie is a treat and a surprise no one should pass on.
Maybe Edwards has some crazy intent to try and offer his reel to God himself and get a pass. Whatever the case, he leaves one heck of a masterpiece for us mortals.
From the wall-to-wall piano score to Rogers' tedious navel-gazing, The Windmill Movie renders prosaic and pretentious the churning conflict behind the process of artistic creation.
a heady combination of Synecdoche, New York, Annie Hall, Peeping Tom, and It's All True but all the more compelling because The Windmill Movie is all true.
Interesting. Wallace Shawn and Bob Balaban could probably switch roles in any movie!They are both good/ So is Susan Meiselas.Alexander Olch's direction is good too.This movie is... interesting!
June 19, 2009
Abbie Cotton
Fascinating movie about a man incapable of making a movie. Very cool how they tried to piece all the footage together and how compelling yet melancholy as well.
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