To the Editors:
In what is an otherwise commendable article on Claude Lanzmann’s film Shoah, Ewa Kuryluk has several errors. Two are minor, one is serious. The minor errors: the fact that it was shown for the first time at the New York Film Festival in October. It should be noted that the film was turned down by the New York Film Festival and that it had its American premiere at the Cinema Studio on Broadway and 66th Street. Also, Ms. Kuryluk refers to a Ner River when in fact it is the Narew River.
More seriously, however, is the sentence that begins: “Not a professional film director but a medical doctor, Lanzmann . . .” etc. Where on earth Ms. Kuryluk divined that Lanzmann is a medical doctor and not a professional film director is a total mystery to me. It’s this kind of misinformation that drives film distributors like myself crazy in the middle of the night, thinking of muddled pressbooks or of a publicity representative who gives the wrong information. I don’t want to blow this up into a big issue, but for the reader to think that Lanzmann is a medical doctor (in fact, he is a Doctor of Philosophy) puts an entirely different complexion on the maker and the film. Is he a surgeon? A foot doctor? Did he interrupt his practice to make the film? In other words, is he a tourist playing at Art?
Lanzmann is indeed a filmmaker. Prior
