David Holzman's Diary

For all the New Wave namechecking the defining influence may be McLuhan. At the precise midpoint, David presents us with "a record of an evening spent watching television...every image that passed through into my head", a dizzying montage in which each frame of film reproduces one shot of TV. The filmmakers' exploration of the ceaselessly stimulating, ravenously cannibalistic character of our then-nascent media ecosystem, and its deleterious effect on social relations, are where they're vikings.

I'm not a big fan of "slice of life" films, and this one, due to the lack of a standard plot and any other significant characters, felt really long. It's tongue-in-cheek, though, which we only find out when we get to the credits. I wonder if its time has passed, as we now have millions of hours of similarly-styled content on YouTube, with narrators wandering aimlessly through fish-eyed life, wondering if any of it really *means* anything.

The fictional Holzman fancies himself an auteur, but simply hopes for brilliance to manifest itself before his lens. McBride presenting this lazy, failed attempt to create a profound work makes for a smart, conceptual experiment in filmmaking that offers its own intelligent statement on art, and how it takes more than just watching French movies and buying an expensive camera to produce something worthwhile; it takes real ideas.

Viewed February 12, 2020.

Sharp and blunt at the same time.

Well crafted film. Not the best movie, or even the best fake documentary film (*cough* Spinal Tap *cough*) but it feels almost real.

A number of points are for the scene with the lady in the car.

At the time this probably seemed very innovative, but now comes across as sort of tedious and pretentious (not unlike similar verite documentary/fiction experiments of the time like Symbiopsychotaxiplasm). The faux-documentary aspect, while lending an intriguingly self-reflexivity to the project, also negates most of what otherwise might seem genuinely interesting about it. The concept is on some level quite prophetic, but at the same time feels kind of dated.

I AM BORED.

Ahead of its time.

Interesting and innovative but kind of hit or miss. Sections such as the interview with the woman out cruising shine but the long drawn out introspective moments of David sitting in front of the camera drag on and on. Asks some good questions about "truth" and cinema though.

A film buff, with the threat of the draft looming over him, tries to make sense of his life by filming it...and is instead reduced to misery. David himself is a maddening fellow; isolated, obsessive, and self-important (the film is almost a proto-TAXI DRIVER), but L.M. Kit Carson is wholly convincing, even when it's unclear if David or the film is being intellectually shallow. But as a look at a mania, and as a portrait of 60s NYC, it's never less than compelling; special kudos to the editing.

"Your life is not a very good script"

"What makes it so effective as a puzzle film is the way it provokes us to piece together, mentally, the life that David must have had before we met him." - Jaime N. Christley

Enjoyable and unique piece of experimental cinema. The fake documentary aspect is very well done and plays with some cinematic conventions in the way it uses video and sound both to place you in a scene and take you out of it. There are a few moments that fall flat but most work well and there's a nice hint of humour in the air.

precursor to Taxi Driver

that dude got owned, just one iceburn after another

This may be the first "mockumentary". McBride seems to be poking fun at the effectiveness of cinema verité. He makes a good point, but it's awfully cynical, and perhaps explains why he would go on to do such pedestrian fare like The Big Easy and Great Balls of Fire. It's an interesting piece, and the documentary style and actors are convincing, and even though it rubbed me the wrong way a little bit, I liked it.