Robin Wood 1931-2009

[Alexander Jacoby]

The distinguished film critic Robin Wood died on Friday, aged 78. While he was not a Japanese specialist, he wrote outstanding articles on Mizoguchi and Ozu, regarding the former, in particular, as one of world cinema's supreme masters. His essays on these directors are to be found in Personal Views (recently reissued) and Sexual Politics and Narrative Film. His analyses are subtle and profound, and showed that it is not necessary to be a Japanese scholar specifically in order to write intelligently and meaningfully on Japanese film.
 
While Wood's contribution to the criticism of Japanese film was confined to a small number of essays, there can be no doubt as to his stature as a film critic as a whole. He was, in my opinion, the greatest writer on cinema in the English language. He analysed films with supreme rigour and precision; he wrote with matchless grace; and his work moved beyond the cinema to pose the question of how one might live with integrity in the face of the barbarities and injustices of the modern world. He has been a huge influence on me since my teenage years, and although I never met him, I felt his death as a personal loss. May he rest in peace.
 
ALEX 


      
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