The Film Club

Critics

• Home Screening

  Since I became a father, I have read stories about parents and their children with a humiliating lack of emotional armor. Right after our son was born, someone gave me a copy of Scott Berg’s biography of Charles Lindbergh. I thought it was wonderful ... (read full critics)

  nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

• THE FILM CLUB: A Memoir

  I couldn't wait to read David Gilmour's THE FILM CLUB. I expected a funny, witty diatribe on the strangely educational aspects of movies on modern life and, especially, on teenagers, those wild and woolly consumers for whom most films are focus-group ... (read full critics)

  teenreads published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

• 

  I really disliked the voice of this book. The persona of the author is very unwise and a total snob. A quote, "I stopped by the "office", a grungy little joint with six or seven compartments in which sat a dead-end white kid, a Pakistani. an overweighr woman with a tub of Coke in front of her, all w ... (continue)

  I really disliked the voice of this book. The persona of the author is very unwise and a total snob. A quote, "I stopped by the "office", a grungy little joint with six or seven compartments in which sat a dead-end white kid, a Pakistani. an overweighr woman with a tub of Coke in front of her, all working the phones. Jesus, I thought. This is the company I've dropped him into." Judmental, racist and fattist all in one sentence. And more hatred is spewed, particularly at the young girls who hate his soon. Shallow guy and a shallow book.

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  Stefan Garcia said on Jan 12, 2012 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• The Film Club - David Gilmour
  I'd like to attach these entries to topics rather than book titles, but well ... this is the Goodreads' format. This one is about author David Gilmour, a new discovery for me. I'm sure i'll get tired of him, only that hasn't happened yet. The Film Club is ... (continue)

  The Film Club - David Gilmour
  I'd like to attach these entries to topics rather than book titles, but well ... this is the Goodreads' format. This one is about author David Gilmour, a new discovery for me. I'm sure i'll get tired of him, only that hasn't happened yet. The Film Club is several things all wrapped into one. At core it's memoir, Gilmour allows his son to drop out of high school on condition he watches his father's choice of three movies each week. It's also about the joy and heartache of romantic love from a male perspective, mirroring then and now between father and son. And then as an added bonus it's also film review, fascinating thought about 100 plus films and their emotional connection. Gilmour was a film reviewer for many years on Canadian television. On all accounts this book is pretty damn good. Gilmour has a way of turning a phrase that's fresh and funny, and there's a real male angst here, both his and his son's.
  Memoir in general can be troubling especially when it leaves a reader feeling like a voyeur to someone's seamier nature. It's one thing when it's the author revealing themselves, that's their choice. (Unless you're one who believes in the moral extortion of money. -- Help, i'm a communist.) But what happens here is more troubling for me, it is also Gilmour's son Jesse, and Jesse's girlfriends that are stripped and layed bare here. That's a part of Gilmour's style that both grabs attention and leaves you feeling a tad ill-at-ease.
  Gilmour is also a novelist. I read Sparrow Nights a short while back and wondered after -- how autobiographical is this story? Now i see the answer -- very. In its way Sparrow Nights also grabs your attention while leaving you feeling ill-at-ease. As i was reading i kept thinking back in contrast with the aforementioned story Doctor Glas. Both center around self-centered <u>egotestical</u> men <hey, ego isn't always bad, nor are men>, men whose personal imbalance in combination with their distorted romantic expectations send them cartwheeling out of control. Dr. Glas is much more self-composed and controlled while Darius Halloway in Sparrow Nights really goes off the rails ... hmmm, perhaps things are the other way round?? Gilmour's satire is more explicit and his ending pulls away from realism, pleasingly if you like that sort of style.
  Not sure what's next for me with Gilmour. Perhaps another novel or perhaps the book called How Boys See Girls.
  NOTES:
  * This book was published by Twelve. Interesting publishing concept: www.twelvebooks.com <u>PS:</u> Twelve is publisher of the just released Ted Kennedy autobiography.
  * Quote for SPBC. About educating his son on film: "You have to start somewhere, if you want to excite someone about literature, you don't start with Ulysses -- although, to be candid, a life without Ulysses seems like a fine idea to me." (pg 40) Ding, ding, ding.

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  Jukka Keller said on Oct 24, 2010 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 280 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0887623492
• ISBN-13: 9780887623493
• Publisher: Thomas Allen Publishers
• Pub date: Feb 25, 2008
• Also available as: Hardcover and Others
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, llibres en català

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