Hopper's Silence

A window into a great artist's mind.
This 1981 documentary about the life and work of American artist Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is appropriately titled, for its subject comes across as soft-spoken and incapable of saying more than is necessary, seeming to prefer that his paintings speak for him. During interview segments, Hopper often looks at the floor and chooses his words slowly and carefully, or just lets his wife handle the talking. Although there is some biographical information, the filmmaker seems first and foremost interested in the feelings that Hopper's paintings evoke. There is quite a lengthy portion of the film that consists of slow zooms of certain paintings of Hopper's accompanied by little more than the musings of a narrator who speaks of the artist's "desire to paint inside and outside at the same time" and "that silence that is half process and half paralysis." In a fairly brief amount of time, Brian O'Doherty grants the viewer insight into what fueled the creation of Edward Hopper's much-admired...

saw it a long time ago, wanted to see it again.
I live in Hopper's childhood hometown of Nyack, NY. I visit the Hopper House frequently. A recent exhibit and lecture inspired me to want to see this old documentary again. I was happy to find it available here.

This is an old, old, video with low production standards
Hopper was a man of few words. It is almost comical to watch the interviewer trying to get him to say something. Except for that it is dull dull dull, reminding us how bad TV was in its infancy.

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