EMILE DE ANTONIO

Emile de Antonio



Emile de Antonio

Introduction

Emile de Antonio (1919-89) was one of the world's renowned documentary filmmakers. His collected works constitute a political history that critically dissects the crucial events and issues of Cold War America. The films de Antonio created in the 1960s and 70S made a significant impact on both the form of documentary cinema and the political practice of filmmaking. He was a leading advocate and practitioner of a politically committed, independent cinema, as well as one of the most articulate radical critics of the establishment. Cumulatively, de Antonio's films present an overview of the most important political events of the post-war epoch and a valuable cinematic legacy of innovative documentaries.

Until now, however, no significant studies have been written about de Antonio or about his film career. This is surprising given the attention afforded his work in both the political arena and the film world during his lifetime. This reader is designed to correct this gap by documenting the life, art, and politics of this vital figure in modern cinema (Bazelon, 1964, 189).

Discussion

Emile De Antonio: Documenting the life of a Radical Filmmaker

Emile de Antonio's films begin with Point of Order (1963), a brilliantly edited compilation of the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings that pioneered the use of television images in documentary cinema and did so without conventional narration. This widely seen feature helped cement the image of Joseph McCarthy as a rogue demagogue. It also established de Antonio's reputation as an "auteur" that film historian Richard Barsam characterizes as a “unique master of a compilation genre that he created and can call his own.” Politically, Point of Order has been called “the first indication that a radical film revival might be imminent in the United States” in the 196os (Hess, 1975, 118).

De Antonio followed his auspicious film debut with Rush to Judgment (1966), a politically explosive documentary on the Kennedy assassination that combines 1963 news footage of events in Dallas with original interviews of witnesses who undermined the Warren Commission Report. These low-budgets, independent radical films established de Antonio as one of the most provocative documentary "auteurs" of his time, a role he pursued with relish over the following two decades.

His subsequent films particularly, “In the Year of the Pig (1968)”, Millhouse (1971), and Painters Painting (1972) deploy collage, compilation techniques, and imaginative sound tracks to create a distinctive documentary corpus. In the Year, of the Pig continues de Antonio's analysis of major political events of the time with an innovative documentary on the Vietnam War, a film still regarded as a paragon of its genre. Millhouse dissects the director's long-time nemesis Richard Nixon.

This “White Comedy” intermixes archival newsreels and interview material to reveal both Nixon's ability as a political creature and the phoniness of his public facade. Such films made de Antonio a nemesis of the conservative establishment and earned intensified FBI scrutiny and government harassment. However, he next turned his creative energy on a seemingly apolitical subject: post-war American ...