Manny Farber

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Revered critic who analysed films as 'moving collages'

Few film critics become revered cult figures in their own right, but the writer and painter Manny Farber was arguably the prime exception. Susan Sontag called Farber "the liveliest, smartest, most original film critic [the US] ever produced." From the 1940s on, Farber originated a new strain in American film criticism.

His was a critical eye that examined films in detail, appreciating their rhythms, their use of visual space, the particular styles and presences of actors: an approach far removed from the literary, narrative-based approach that still dominates newspaper film reviewing. Adopting a pugnacious, …