The Sticking Place

Since the year 2000, work on two (unplanned) trilogies.

First: an investigation – via a film, an individual, an event – into American politics and culture during tumultuous 1968. Medium Cool, Haskell Wexler’s fiction/non-fiction hybrid, was shot in Chicago that summer, shortly after Peter Whitehead was at Columbia University during the student protests, when for a week a thousand people occupied five campus buildings. Each of these three will eventually yield both written and audio/visual components.

Second: film craft. On Film-Making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director is a collection of pedagogic writings by Alexander Mackendrick, accompanied by an educational audio/visual project (here) and several other books in progress, including a study of Mackendrick’s teaching career at the California Institute of the Arts. A Guide for the Perplexed is an interview book with Werner Herzog detailing each and every one of his films (beginning 1957, through to 2013), his handful of published works, and other adventures, and is accompanied by a photo book (in progress). Lessons with Kiarostami documents a series of workshops led by Abbas Kiarostami and was published alongside several volumes of his original and selected/adapted poetry. Mackendrick’s writings tackle craft, structure and precision, Herzog aims his attention at the value of perseverance and what he calls “agitation of the mind,” Kiarostami focuses on the expression of poetry, on the potency of reading between the lines, on the search for the enigmatic. An appreciation of all three is a requirement of the competent filmmaker and storyteller. Without precision, formlessness ensues. Without perseverance, little is accomplished. Without poetry, craft is just nuts and bolts. Think carefully before you speak, be forceful enough so people hear what you have to say, express only those ideas most meaningful to you. If Herzog is a self-proclaimed soldier of cinema, Mackendrick is a mechanic and Kiarostami a monk. Different approaches to the world and to filmmaking, different traits at play, but those that may profitably be drawn together, resulting in things new and worthwhile. What connects this idiosyncratic trio, what is always in evidence, next to forthright obsession and discipline, is an implacable commitment to creative adventuring and belief in the primacy of the audience.

Other projects include research and translations for Ray Carney’s Cassavetes on Cassavetes (2001), an audio/visual project and book (2003/2014) about historian and curator Amos Vogel (also assisting with the 2005 and 2021 reissues of his 1974 classic Film as a Subversive Art), editing three collections (2004/2005/2008) for the University Press of Mississippi’s Conversations with Filmmakers series, assisting George Stevens Jr. on two volumes of interviews (2007/2014) drawn from the archives of the American Film Institute (here and here), editing an illustrated monograph about filmmaker Paul Williams (2024), an unfinished interview with documentarian Errol Morris (in this book from 2009), a filmed interview (2022) with producer Sandy Lieberson, an interview short with LBJ White House cameraman William Fisher (2022), and an essay (2016) about Maurice Stein and Larry Miller’s 1970 publication Blueprint for Counter Education. Three projects for Expressive Texts: three books (2023) by Joseph Gelmis (a collection of writing originally published in Newsday, a version of The Film Director as Superstar with a foreword by Steven Soderbergh, and two newly uncovered and transcribed interviews, with Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick), two interview collections (Stephen Frears, Abbas Kiarostami) containing many new translations of previously published sources, edited (2020) by Presley Parks, and (forthcoming) a three-volume collection of writings by, interviews with, and commentary on producer Michael Balcon. Work-in-progress includes a book about Werner Herzog for Taschen, an interview with Faber film book meister Walter Donohue, an essay film about Jesus, and a film about production sound mixer Chris Newman.

The publishing wing has issued many books, including the entire Kiarostami project, the Paul Williams monograph, and The Mystical Filmmaker, a collection of correspondence between Peter Whitehead and John Sorensen. Sticking Place Books published Patrick McGilligan‘s interview collection Still Film Crazy (2024), screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin‘s memoir It’s Only a Movie and an accompanying volume of his unproduced scripts (2024), and Neil Hornick’s book about Stanley Kubrick (2024) which in 1969 Kubrick tried to suppress. Translations include Samuel Blumenfeld and Laurent Vachaud’s interview book with director Brian De Palma (2024), Nathan Réra’s book about De Palma’s Casualties of War (2024), Réra’s interview book with director Damien Chazelle (2024) and N.T. Binn’s interview book with critic Michel Ciment (2024). Other books include Adrian Martin and Cristina Álvarez López’s collection of De Palma criticism (2024), Mexico: The Aztec Account of the Conquest, an unproduced script by Werner Herzog (2024), a study of Herzog’s films by David LaRocca (2024), and The Naughty Bits: What The Censors Wouldn’t Let You See in Hollywood’s Most Famous Movies by Nat Segaloff (2024).

pDo nothing on anyone else’s terms (“Act first to desire your own good opinion” – so said the Stoics). Note Emerson. Turn your back on anyone who insists “It can’t be done that way.” Be fearful of nothing, don’t take criticism of your work personally, and never doubt your abilities (plenty of people will do that for you). Self-pity is bad (victimhood is corrosive). Gossip is a waste of energy (listen and hold your tongue). Be invaluable to those around you. Live up to your myth and play to your strengths (where can a useful contribution be made?). Be reconciled to your limitations (know when to disengage, embrace marginality). Remember what Werner Herzog said about money: it’s cowardly and stupid, slow and unimaginative. Free yourself from the control of others (wait for no one) and chase what you want (that door – never knock just once). Nothing worth anything comes easy. “Live to the point of tears” (turn away from anything not sufficiently challenging). Let he who has never sinned… Reuse your work (birdstone). Know your tools. Collaborate only with people cleverer than you. Take on more than you can handle – say yes to everything (just how badly do you want it?). Go for low-hanging fruit last. Push it forward every day and watch momentum build. Autodidactism is good and never-ending (create your own rigorous learning environment). Our most valuable commodity is time. “Only the exhaustive is truly interesting” (superficiality is dishonourable). Delay gratification. Hard work, the only substitute for intelligence, doesn’t go unrewarded. Never fold when you can check (keep your options open). Reliability and consistency (keep your hands clean). Politics is half the battle (“Indicate you heard me”). Be respectful of gatekeepers. Stay clear from institutions or accept the inevitable (decide which side you’re on – does public life require a distortion of self?). Earn the respect of those you respect. Common courtesy, please. Bluster is rarely good (remain undercover: stillness, solitude). Those collaborators able to switch you on – hold them close. The answer might be right in front of you. Every project has a natural lifespan. Leave your sense of entitlement at the door (play low status). If not now, when? “Schlafen kannst du, wenn du tot bist.” Swallow your pride. Invest in the open-ended. Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. If you give, give unconditionally. “Independence” is a state of mind. Process not product. Leave the ignorant to themselves. There is often not better, only different. “Credit you give yourself is not worth having.” Walk the desert, wherever you are. Dignity matters. All life is problem-solving (and don’t make your problems other people’s). With scant concern can come liberation. Pay people what they are worth. Don’t believe the hype. Hold yourself to the highest of standards. Come to terms with the truth. Beware of what people accuse you of – it’s likely to be the very thing they themselves feel guilty about. Don’t use “myself” when “me” will do just fine. Get on the corner. Most people want to be talked down from the ledge. Play the long game. Be on time. Listen for the silent “no.” Don’t say anything that might be misunderstood or misrepresented. Never go ad hominem. Hanlon’s Razor (always give the benefit of the doubt). Don’t be so cynical or easily “offended.” No – “like” – hedging. Stop mumbling. Words are not violent. Self-promotion. Buy fewer books (and read more). Have a marketing strategy. Pay attention. Falsify your worldview. Slow and steady wins the race. Complain in silence (unflappability). It might be best to keep it to yourself. (Don’t mistake quietude for arrogance.) Be not so easily pleased. Enjoy the abyss. Travel narrows the mind. Get more exercise (posture). Try not to die like a dog. Don’t quit those piano lessons. Always send a thank-you note. You are responsible for your own actions. Fulfill your potential. Screw your courage to the sticking place.

paul.cronin@thestickingplace.com