By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Alexander Olch
Country: united_states
Year: 2009
Running time: 82
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276996/
Diane says: “Lacking the directorial genius of Jonathan Caouette (TARNATION) and the painfully fascinating subjects of GREY GARDENS, deceased Harvard film prof Richard Rogers tried for twenty-five years to create an autobiographical documentary. He failed. In fact, Rogers called himself ‘a failure of no proportion.’ Or wait–was that phrase created by his former student and director of THE WINDMILL MOVIE, Alexander Olch? Olch has taken the massive archive of reels, cassettes, and digital video beginning in the mid-’70s, and at the request of Rogers’ wife, put together a film to take the place of his teacher’s uncompleted project.
“Dick Rogers was ashamed of his personal privilege, having been raised in wealth in the Hamptons. He was also ashamed of his lack, as a middling filmmaker, of economic power. Rogers was afraid to put himself in this movie about himself. For most of the film/most of his life, he’s a jerk lacking in self-awareness, but mortality in his last years (and Olch’s voice-over?) give him and the film gravitas. I was actually quite moved by the last section. WINDMILL occasionally veers toward a SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK concept but with so much less intelligence than that movie. (Wally Shawn has the Tom Noonan role here–sorry, Wally!)
“Splitting the difference between the annoying parts and the effective parts, I’ll give it 3 cats.
“This is available as a screener. If you’ve got the stomach for something experimental, I recommend it.”