CONVERSATIONS IN VERMONT (director: Robert Frank; cinematographer: Ralph Gibson; Runtime: 27; MPAA Rating: NR; New Yorker Films/Steidl; 1969-Germany-in English)
“Personal movie.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Steidl presents Robert Frank: The Complete Film Works-Vol. 2 the PAL format. The three-disc set includes OK End Here and Liferaft Earth. Beat generation Swiss-born director Robert Frank (“Candy Mountain”/”Run”/”Summer Cannibals”), perhaps the most influential of mid 20th-century American photographers, has turned filmmaker and directs this personal movie, a documentary shot in grainy black and white.

It’s about the wealthy born artist engaged in conversation with his troubled oldest teenage son Pablo and his 15-year-old daughter Andrea. The artist’s wife, fellow artist Mary Lockspeiser, remains in the background, as he chats with the teens in their rural Vermont retreat. The kids attend a commune school and are glad to be removed from the fast paced hipster NYC scene, as they talk about their counter-culture lifestyle. Lots of dad talk to the kiddies about the past and present, that was too personal and trivial to hold my interest.

REVIEWED ON 3/30/2009 GRADE: B-

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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