by Angela Guess
Richard Brody of the New Yorker published an article this week under the inhospitable title, “Screenwriting Isn’t Writing.” The article discusses F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unsuccessful bout as a screenwriter, purporting:
Fitzgerald’s time in Hollywood was a period of illusion, of delusion over all. Much to his credit and much to his misfortune, he was unable to sell out. He didn’t condescend to the movies, but took them seriously—so seriously that he made the mistake of thinking that screenwriting was writing, and that it could take its place in his oeuvre, which, in turn, would mark the cinema with his original artistry.
Evidently, Mr. Brody shares “notes on the cinema” with New Yorker readers, which I find surprising because the man seems to have absolutely no respect for film as an art form, and particularly low regard for screenwriters.
