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| Stone Reader |
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Fiedler was especially intrigued by the spooky phenomenon of the
one-shot novelist, and so is almost everyone else in the movie.
(Harper Lee of To Kill a Mockingbird is practically the film’s
mascot.) The silences of gifted writers have many causes, but what’s
clear in Stone Reader is the plain fact that novel-writing is a
soul-churning experience not to be entered into lightly. It’s possible
to make too much out of all this tortuousness; after all, lousy
novels are probably just as agonizing to produce as great ones.
Moskowitz understands this, but he also says at one point, “Reading
is the only thing that keeps me sane.” He subscribes to the cult
of the novel, and I suspect that most people who will love this
movie do, too. The Stones of Summer sounds like a terrific
book, and I hope this film will get it re-issued by one of those
rare enterprising souls in a publishing business increasingly inimical
to risk. (2 hrs. 8 mins.; NR) — PETER RAINER Spotlight: Filmmaker Mark Moskowitz |
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In
1972, 18-year-old Mark Moskowitz, who has since become an acclaimed
director of political spots and commercials, picked up The Stones
of Summer, a well-reviewed book by first-time author Dow Mossman,
and couldn’t get into it. Twenty-five years later, he tried again,
loved the book, and subsequently discovered that Mossman had vanished
without publishing another word. With a diligence that only a true
book nut can appreciate—there are Mark Moskowitzes crowding the
narrow aisles of every used-book store in the country—he set out
to discover what happened to Mossman. His film Stone Reader, at
Film Forum, is a marvelous literary thriller that gets at the way
books can stay with people forever. Moskowitz interviews a standout
crew of commentators, including Robert Gottlieb, who talks about
editing Catch-22; Frank Conroy, who presides over the Iowa
Writers’ Workshop, where Mossman once toiled on his novel; the literary
critic John Seelye, who could pass for an old salt on the Pequod;
and, most poignantly, Leslie Fiedler, who died two weeks ago, in
what may well have been his last filmed appearance. They all look
lit up by a love of literature.