Milton Moses Ginsberg
American film director (1935–2021)
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Milton Moses Ginsberg (September 22, 1935 â May 23, 2021) was an American film director and editor. He was noted for writing and directing Coming Apart, a 1969 film starring Rip Torn and Sally Kirkland, and The Werewolf of Washington starring Dean Stockwell.
Milton Moses Ginsberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 22, 1935 |
| Died | May 23, 2021 (aged 85) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) |
| Occupations | Director, Writer, Editor, |
| Spouse | Nina Posnansky |
Early life
Ginsberg was born in the New York City borough of The Bronx on September 22, 1935, to Jewish parents Elias, a cutter in Manhattan's garment district, and Fannie (née Weis), a housewife.[1][2] He attended the Bronx High School of Science, before studying literature at Columbia University, where he obtained a bachelor's degree.[1]
Career
Coming Apart
Ginsberg directed his first feature film, Coming Apart, in 1969. It starred Rip Torn as a mentally disturbed psychologist who secretly films his sexual encounters with women. Sally Kirkland, who was simultaneously filming Futz! at the time, also stars.[3] The film was shot in a one-room, 15 ft à 17 ft (4.6 m à 5.2 m) apartment in Kips Bay Plaza, on a budget of $60,000. Shooting lasted three weeks.[4] Ginsberg filmed the entire movie with one static camera setup, in a manner simulating a non-constructed "fake documentary" style, influenced by Jim McBride's David Holzman's Diary.[5]:â86â
Critical reception was mixed. Life reviewer Richard Schickel praised Torn's performance, Ginsberg's inventive use of camera and sound, and the "illuminating" portrayal of a schizophrenic breakdown.[6] Critic Andrew Sarris gave it a less-favorable review, and the film was a commercial failure.[4] The film later attained a cult following among critics and filmmakers.[4]
In a 1999 volume of Film Comment, Ginsberg stated:
... the film was about a psychiatrist encased in his own reflection, using a hidden camera to record his own disintegration. The film was also about the pleasures and price of promiscuity, and about the form and duration of cinema itself - or so I hoped. And to a degree that still embarrasses, it was about me. Appropriate, the title, Coming Apart.[7]:â4â
Subsequent work
In 1973, Ginsberg wrote and directed the satirical horror film The Werewolf of Washington starring Dean Stockwell.[8] Eschewing the minimalism of his previous feature, Ginsberg demonstrated a more technically complex film style.[9][10]
After a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1975, Ginsberg became depressed and withdrew from filmmaking.[1] He returned to directing in 1999 and 2001, with the short films The City Below the Line and The Haloed Bird.[4][7]:â6â
After his final feature film, Ginsberg primarily made a living as a film editor,[4] working on two Academy Award-winning documentaries, Down and Out in America and The Personals, among others.[1] He edited both parts of the miniseries Fidel (2002) for director David Attwood.[11][12]
Personal life
Filmography
| Year | Title | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Coming Apart | Director | [12] |
| 1973 | The Werewolf of Washington | Writer and director | [12] |
| 1986 | Down and Out in America | Editor | [1] |
| 1990 | Listen Up: The Lives Of Quincy Jones | Editor | [12][13] |
| 1995 | Catwalk | Editor | [12] |
| 1997 | Pronto | Editor | [12] |
| 1998 | The Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years | Editor | [12] |
| 2000 | Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light | Editor | [12] |
| 2002 | Fidel | Editor | [12] |
| 2005 | A Father... A Son... Once upon a Time in Hollywood | Editor | [12] |