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The surfaces ofVengeance Is Mineare so modest that the films deep vein of emotional terror sneaks up on you.
at Film Forum in New York City.
(In its day, it ran on PBSsAmerican Playhouseto poor reviews and little viewer interest.)
Those who can see it, should.
Its a genuine discovery.
Her mother is sick and her sister, Fran (Audry Matson), has just had a baby.
(Hate is the word Jo uses.)
Roemer never judges these people, however.
She says what shes thinking.
She lies, then tells the truth, then lies again.
She puts the people around her in danger.
Vengeance Is Mineis about as visually unadorned as movies come, and yet every shot is riveting.
It has that in common with the directors other films, all of them unshowy and astounding.
Over and over again, Roemer proved himself to be calamitously ahead of his time.
Roemer, who as a child fled Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport to England, is 94 now.
Im glad hes able to witness yet another reemergence of his work.
Here, a personal note.
Michael Roemer was one of my professors in college.
These films were not widely available.
(I had to take a summer course at NYU to learn all that.)
It never felt like you were learning with Roemer, but you were.
Mostly we watched and talked and watched and talked some more.
(This was before the age of digital video, and our school had nuked its 16-mm.
And when he marveled, he really marveled.
So that was filmmaking.
Michael Roemer provided a lesson unavailable in any textbook or teaching guide or curriculum.
He taught you how tosee.
WatchingVengeance Is Mine, its clear that he practiced what he preached.
