Saturday, March 23, 2013
A SLICE OF TIMES
Today's film was Andrew Rossi's documentary
Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)
This is not what I expected. I thought maybe a kind of civics' lesson on making a newspaper with some stuff thrown in about the threat to the institution.
Nothing could be further from the case.
This film takes a few months time at the Times where Rossi, alone without a crew, stalked the halls and, eventually boiled it down for us. Daily life at the Times.
Sure there is a lot about the viability of newspapers, but more exciting is the way that he follows several reporters in the progress of their tasks. The back and forth, the bickering, the actual joy in producing something new every day. Indeed, we see one guy lose 90 pounds during the shoot. I noticed somewhere in the last third of the film and then they quickly refer to it. Personal.
Rossi's timing was serendipitous. He hit the Times right when the WikiLeaks news dump with the Times in the middle. Very good.
David Carr, who has a wild personal history, breaks a huge exposé of the Tribune Company causing its president to resign. I love David Carr anyway and to see him in the flesh is quite a treat.
We see the expected daily meetings formulating the front page. We see them mock NBC for making a photo pop into a big event. They decided not to cover it.
And so on.
The rhythm of the thing is quite engaging. It moves. And moves. We get to know some people. A young reporter gets assigned to Iraq and then makes it to Baghdad chief. Personalities.
I would be happy to see this again. Therefore a 4 out of Netflix5.
Nice job, Rossi.
Labels: films
