Frederick Wiseman (1930-2026)

[zedz]

What a career, and he went out on peak form with Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros

[knives]

This is silly to say about a man as old and prolific as he was, but I was hoping for years more worth of films from him. It really feels like thievery for him to die.

[denti alligator]

I’ll never forget, about 30 years ago, being invited to a professor’s house for dinner and a movie. He lived (likely still does) next door to Fred Wiseman, from whom he had borrowed a VHS of Near Death, which we watched (the few students who had committed to staying late) after a screening of The Wrong Trousers. He was that kind of professor. The next year I attended a dinner and screening with Wiseman at the university. A generous man and a brilliant filmmaker. I’m glad he lived as long as he did and I hope BFI keeps putting out more sets of his films.

[Lowry_Sam]

Probably America's most underrated filmmaker. He might get accolades in academic and documentary film circles, but he's still largely ignored by the wider society. Maybe when the allure of CGI, popular music soundtracks & quick cut editing fades and America emerges from Amusing Ourselves To Death, his films might become the ones Americans seek out when they finally realize what they've lost, but that will require longer attention spans & critical thinking skills.

[hearthesilence]

I’ll never forget, about 30 years ago, being invited to a professor’s house for dinner and a movie. He lived (likely still does) next door to Fred Wiseman, from whom he had borrowed a VHS of Near Death, which we watched (the few students who had committed to staying late) after a screening of The Wrong Trousers. He was that kind of professor. The next year I attended a dinner and screening with Wiseman at the university. A generous man and a brilliant filmmaker. I’m glad he lived as long as he did and I hope BFI keeps putting out more sets of his films.

I actually recommended Near Death to a friend of mine who's a doctor (though tbf I recommend that film all the time when Wiseman comes up), and in the process of digging up some contextual info for him, I found out Dr. Taylor is still active and teaching medical students in the Boston area. (Besides Beth Israel, he's affiliated with other hospitals as well.)

What a terrible day for cinema, losing Duvall and now Wiseman. It says a lot that both men were not only incredibly prolific, they consistently delivered at the highest level. Both were working as late as 2022/2023 and both were still making public appearances of sorts (Duvall only virtually) - it's no coincidence that they came this close to reaching 100 in seeming good health.

Wiseman was pretty blunt about his chances of making another film, but it looked like he was starting a second career as an actor. I think he only managed two appearances, which is too bad because it turns out he's a very welcome presence on-screen (either in-person or simply through his voice alone).

[Captain Paranoia]

I don't know if he was ill by then, but it's strangely telling that the BFI issued their Cinema Expanded BD set just weeks before his death. Certainly was one of the most fascinating of American docufilmmakers out there and deserves a mainstream revival of his work.

[GaryC]

I don't know if he was ill by then, but it's strangely telling that the BFI issued their Cinema Expanded BD set just weeks before his death. Certainly was one of the most fascinating of American docufilmmakers out there and deserves a mainstream revival of his work.

The BFI also had a three-month retrospective of a selection of his films, from the second half of October to January. Given the time taken to curate something like that, I suspect it's a coincidence that he passed so soon afterwards. Wiseman wasn't involved with any of the screenings, but there was a discussion after a showing of High School which is included in the Blu-ray set, plus some introductions to some of the showings, one of which was by his longtime cinematographer John Davey.

There are nine of his films available now on BFI Player with a subscription. Three of them (Titicut Follies, High School and Welfare) are also in the Blu-ray set. The other six are: Multi-Handicapped, Ballet, Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, Central Park, National Gallery and Wiseman's final film Menu-Plaisirs: Les Troisgros, which the BFI also gave a limited cinema release to.

[onedimension]

Had there been any political or ethical element (or economic, or aesthetic) to Wiseman's handling of his work for home video? It's on Kanopy - available for free with a library card - but not Netflix. His website requests donations be made to PBS stations in his memory.. The BFI release was an anomaly, since everything's through Zipporah Films. Criterion would put out a $500 box set in a heartbeat!

[knives]

Criterion would put out one of his films and leave the rest to rot. They’re the last people I want to handle distribution.

[senseabove]

I don't think any other company in the world would even dream of doing a complete Wiseman box besides Criterion, but they're also the most likely to put out Welfare and Titticut Follies and call it a day. I'd be fine with them doing some breakout titles and "dumping" the rest to decade-by-decade or thematic Eclipse sets if that's what it takes. I just want to be able to see the rest of the restorations. (Kanopy is still showing the old masters, afaik.)

[ianthemovie]

Correct me if I'm wrong but only in the last few years did he start to work with other companies like the BFI to distribute his work more widely. My understanding is that he always retained the rights to the films and distributed them himself through Zipporah (his own company, named for his wife). I can't remember if I ever heard him talk about the reasoning behind this, if it was so he could exercise total control over the films, or because he earned more revenue from them that way. Obviously he had a long working relationship with PBS but they never put anything out on disc so far as I'm aware.

I would argue that distribution is one of the biggest reasons why he remains one of those examples of "the greatest director you've never heard of." For too long his films were simply too difficult to see. They may have been shown on public television but I never saw them there. It was years before I ever got to see things like Titicut Follies, Welfare, Near Death, High School, etc. which I had previously read about in books, and that was only after Zipporah started manufacturing bare-bones DVDs on-demand, which my library started purchasing for their media collection. That was around 2011. Finally getting to work my way through his filmography was revelatory.

So at least now Kanopy is allowing the films to be more widely seen and known. Sadly I believe the audience for Wiseman's films will remain limited to hard-core documentary aficionados and cinephiles, and people who are seriously interested in fields like medicine, social work, urban planning, etc. Near Death is an astounding film but I know of few people outside of those select communities who would voluntarily watch all of it. I'd love to see this proven wrong, though!

[hearthesilence]

I don't know if he was ill by then, but it's strangely telling that the BFI issued their Cinema Expanded BD set just weeks before his death. Certainly was one of the most fascinating of American docufilmmakers out there and deserves a mainstream revival of his work.

The BFI also had a three-month retrospective of a selection of his films, from the second half of October to January. Given the time taken to curate something like that, I suspect it's a coincidence that he passed so soon afterwards...

It was absolutely a coincidence. The Blu-ray release was done after a long, comprehensive restoration project that took years (even encompassing a switch in facilities because DuArt went out of business). Then it was a slow roll out of the results with a Lincoln Center retrospective preceding the BFI's program (which Wiseman did take part in, as well as a MoMI event not long after). The Blu-ray set was likely an inevitable progression of that roll out. And then there's the fact that he was 96 years old - honestly, once you're living through the tenth decade of your life, you have to face the reality that you could go at any second.

Correct me if I'm wrong but only in the last few years did he start to work with other companies like the BFI to distribute his work more widely...

Also don't forget that his films did get a three-volume DVD box set release from Blaq Out in France, which is probably the exception that proves the rule. So there was somebody willing to do it, albeit for DVD rather than Blu-ray.

[onedimension]

I don't think any other company in the world would even dream of doing a complete Wiseman box besides Criterion, but they're also the most likely to put out Welfare and Titticut Follies and call it a day. I'd be fine with them doing some breakout titles and "dumping" the rest to decade-by-decade or thematic Eclipse sets if that's what it takes. I just want to be able to see the rest of the restorations. (Kanopy is still showing the old masters, afaik.)

If not a complete box - I was thinking of a massive undertaking like the set of Olympic films - I could certainly see Kino, Milestone, Icarus Films gladly releasing a few.

I asked about his motives because I could imagine someone so drawn to observation of *institutions* having a preference for PBS and public libraries (or their streaming affiliate) as the primary custodians of his work.

[zedz]

There are lots of ways you could carve up Wiseman's work thematically (or geographically), but it would risk leaving some films without an obvious home and would downplay the wonderful diversity of his ongoing panorama of American institutions.

The French films form an obvious subset that could be packaged together:
La Comedie-Francaise, La Danse, Crazy Horse, Menus-Plaisirs

Though it would be weird for those to get prioritized over his more iconic American films.

[Lowry_Sam]

Wiseman’s films disappeared from my Kanopy 2 or 3 years ago which I assumed was because of the restorations and/or someone licensing them. So they still show up for others?

I have the 3 box sets, but I prefer watching them without the burned in yellow French subtitles.

FYI if you’re in SF Bay area, BAMPFA also had the restoration retrospective and 2/19 it ends with Meat.

[ianthemovie]

Wiseman’s films disappeared from my Kanopy 2 or 3 years ago which I assumed was because of the restorations and/or someone licensing them. So they still show up for others?

Different libraries license different titles for Kanopy so your library may no longer offer access to them. I'm pretty sure I saw them on my Kanopy home screen not long ago but I'd have to check if they're still there.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It looks like 45 of his films are available through institutions with the relevant subscription. The only absences I see are Menus-Plaisirs (probably because it's still streaming via PBS) and the two obvious ones (Seraphita's Diary and The Garden).

[hearthesilence]

A relative still gets them on Kanopy through their suburban library. One caveat - last time he checked, they were the old masters, not the new restorations. That should eventually change though.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I know it's a bit morbid, but my thoughts do wander to whether Milestone might finally be able to release The Cool World.

[GaryC]

Further Wiseman availability in the UK: from 20 March, Mubi will be streaming eight of his films: High School, Law and Order, Model, The Store, Aspen, At Berkeley, In Jackson Heights and City Hall. High School is in the box set and was shown at the BFI Southbank, but there are three there which didn't feature in the BFI's retrospective - Law and Order, Model and City Hall. (In Jackson Heights did, but I missed the showing.)

[hearthesilence]

Zipporah apparently has a limited number of theatrical posters you can buy from them, including some that are signed.

The signed posters have been selling out in the wake of his passing, and the only ones left are for A Couple, so if anyone wants to buy one before they're all gone, you still have the opportunity to do so.

[beamish14]

I know it's a bit morbid, but my thoughts do wander to whether Milestone might finally be able to release The Cool World.

That was one of my first thoughts, too. The Library of Congress’ circulating print of it is gorgeous. I’m guessing the materials are in good shape

I’d love to know the story behind his fictional film Seraphita’s Diary (1980), starring Appolonia van Ravenstein of Tom Schiller’s brilliant Nothing Lasts Forever (1984). I think Wiseman basically suppressed it

[cantinflas]

This came at the end of an interview with Herzog about Ghost Elephants

If I may ask one very brief last question on the recent of passing of Frederick Wiseman. I know your careers are very different and your styles are very very different, but you had to have swum in the same circles over the decades at the same film festivals. Is there an anecdote, or a comment on his incredible oeuvre, and life?



Herzog: Yes. A truly great filmmaker. But whenever we met in public we would lock horns. And do combat!

But with great respect. Because we come from different positions. He is cinema vérité. Over emphasis, in my opinion, on facts. Facts that will not give you truth. Facts create norms, but not illumination. So, we would do combat in a wonderful way, and I loved him for that. And of course he is one of the great monuments of twentieth century filmmaking. No doubt! We will miss him. I will miss him for combat. I sharpened my own perspectives from meeting him.

[Gregory]

Six minutes of nearly wordless doughnut making from Belfast, Maine. I cound not recommend enjoying these minutes more highly. This is pure poetry, cinematographically and in the aesthetic aspect of tactile movement inherent in the labor of making something by hand using a well-worn muscle-memory process. That's how I feel, at least.

I've been meaning to revisit some Wiseman films in full and will soon. Normally I'm not much of a watching-one-scene-from-a-movie-I've-seen guy but with Wiseman's films I think it easily pays off. Watching a four-hour doc and vs. a little excerpt are such different experiences.

[mteller]

I've been catching up with all my unseen Wiseman on Kanopy lately. Boy, Kubrick owes an awful lot to Basic Training.