Thank you, Professor Sarris (1928-2012)

Posted by Jennine Lanouette on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

Film critic and film history professor Andrew Sarris died this morning. I had the privilege of taking a couple of classes with him while in graduate school in the Columbia Film Division.

My recollected impressions of Professor Sarris range from the avuncular professor with stains on his jacket and billowing shirttails to the captivating storyteller who seemed to have a personal anecdote for every film he lectured on. I remember him as a treasured asset in the Columbia Film Division (“There goes Andrew Sarris!”), like a roving statue of himself. Yet, despite such a lion-sized reputation, he was always amiable and approachable, like some kind of high-brow Teddy Bear.

It was in his American Film History class that I first saw I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, an eye-opening lesson for me in what film can do.  I was so struck that I chose it as the subject for my term paper. Then a strange thing happened. Something about the influence of his class enabled years of fear and dread of term paper writing to fall away, leaving me with a previously unknown ease and assurance as I articulated my thoughts. But, for some stressed-out-student reason, I was late with it, nonetheless.

Professor Sarris, as we respectfully addressed him, took a no-big-deal attitude towards my lateness and instructed me to bring it to his house instead. Ringing the doorbell, I expected to be simply handing it to him. But, when he opened the door, I was invited in and offered a seat in the living room. He took the paper from its manila envelope and proceeded to read it in front of me, perched on the edge of the couch, hunched over the coffee table, slowly turning the pages. I sat stiffly, looking around thinking, This is the living room of Andrew Sarris and Molly Haskell. Then, having nothing to read myself, I just watched him . . . reading my paper.

Finally, he turned over the last page, looked up at me with a bemused smile, and made some rather affirming comments. I gathered that he liked it. He even mumbled a couple of things that seemed to indicate he’d learned something. My focus was on the film’s screenplay, not an area he generally prioritized. Although he only gave me a B+ (I had neglected to discuss camera angles and mise en scene), I left his apartment with a very satisfied feeling of having finally figured out how to do this paper-writing thing on my own terms, while also having caught and held the interest of Andrew Sarris.

I trace the roots of my current writings in screenplay analysis back to that day in Professor Sarris’s living room. There was something about his openness and acceptance that allowed me to find my voice. My sense is he was open to any voice that was intelligently conceived. That’s the kind of information sponge he was.

Sadly, I have lost that paper. But a few years ago, I was asked to write an article for Release Print magazine about a film that illuminated a social justice issue. I drew upon my recollections of the I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang analysis I did for Professor Sarris. That article is posted on this site here.