Emile Francisco de Antonio (May 14, 1919
– December 15, 1989) was an American director and producer of
documentary films
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
, usually detailing political, social, and
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
events circa 1960s–1980s. He has been referred to by Randolph Lewis as, "…the most important political filmmaker in the United States during the Cold War."
Early life
De Antonio was born in 1919 in the
coal-mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
town of
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
. His father, Emilio de Antonio, an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
immigrant
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
, fostered the lifelong interests of Antonio by passing on his own love for philosophy, classical literature, history and the arts.
He attended
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
alongside future president
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
. Despite this, De Antonio was familiar with the working class experience, making his living at various points in his life as a peddler, a book editor, and the captain of a river barge (among other duties).
He would later go on to make a film about Kennedy's assassination called ''
Rush to Judgment
''Rush to Judgment: A Critique of the Warren Commission's Inquiry into the Murders of President John F. Kennedy, Officer J.D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald'' is a 1966 book by American lawyer Mark Lane (author), Mark Lane. It is about the Assassin ...
'' (1966), an early rebuttal of the
Warren Report
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...
.
[Harvard Film Archive, “Emile de Antonio's America]
" Harvard Archive (accessed September 4, 2011).
Career
After serving in the
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
as a
bomber pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they ar ...
, de Antonio returned to the United States where he frequented the art crowd, often associating with such
pop artists as
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...
,
Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...
, and
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
, in whose film ''Drink'' de Antonio appears. Warhol was famously quoted praising de Antonio with the words, "Everything I learned about painting, I learned from De."
In 1959, de Antonio created G-String Productions in order to distribute the
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...
film ''
Pull My Daisy
''Pull My Daisy'' is a 1959 American short film directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, and adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of his play, '' Beat Generation''.
Kerouac also provided improvised narration. It features poets Allen ...
'', and it was at this time that de Antonio discovered
filmmaking
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
. His first film, ''
Point of Order!
''Point of Order!'' is a 1964 in film, 1964 American documentary film by Emile de Antonio, about the United States Senate, Senate Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954.
Background
The Army–McCarthy hearings came about when the United States Army, Ar ...
'' (1964), was a
compilation film
A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common example would be a docum ...
covering
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
and the
Army-McCarthy hearings. In 1968, de Antonio signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest
Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse of ...
" pledge, vowing to refuse
tax payments in protest against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
.
De Antonio chronicled this art scene in his documentary ''
Painters Painting'' (1972). He did not actually begin creating films until the age of 43, after making significant contributions to the modern art world through his uncensored promotion of the work of his contemporaries.
In 1969, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
held a water-stone exhibition titled New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970, that included 408 works by 43 artists. Curator
Henry Geldzahler
Henry Geldzahler (July 9, 1935 – August 16, 1994) was a Belgian-born American curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a historian and critic of modern art. He is best known for his work at the Metropolitan Museum ...
granted de Antonio the unique opportunity of exclusive access to the works included in the show, and exclusive rights to filming it.
Until this point, de Antonio noted, "I disliked films on painting that I knew. They were either arty, narrated in a gush of reverence, as if painting were among angelic orders, or filmed with violent, brainless zooms on Apollo's navel, a celebration of the camera over the god. They revealed nothing at all about how or why a painting was made."
The intimate opportunity of access to the show, and the similarly close relationships with many of the artists, led de Antonio to select thirteen painters to profile in his film, in addition to
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
s,
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
s, dealers, collectors, and other influential figures in the contemporary art world. Combining interviews with live footage of the artists at work in their studio, de Antonio and
cinematographer
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
Ed Emshwiller
Edmund Alexander Emshwiller (February 16, 1925 – July 27, 1990) was an American visual artist notable for his science fiction illustrations and his pioneering experimental films. He usually signed his illustrations as Emsh but sometimes used E ...
created a groundbreaking work that captured
abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
and other major contemporary art movements in a way no film maker had ever before.
In an interview regarding his filmography, de Antonio spoke about his relationship with the painters and his role in the creation of the film: "I was probably the only filmmaker in the world who could
ave made ''Painters Painting''because I knew all those people, from the time that they were poor, and unsuccessful and had no money. I knew
Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...
and
Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954–1964), a ...
and
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...
and Stella before they ever sold a painting, and so it was interesting to
o the film about them"
Controversy
De Antonio was the creator/producer of many politically-motivated films (including the 1969 Oscar-nominated ''
In the Year of the Pig
''In the Year of the Pig'' is an American documentary film directed by Emile de Antonio about American involvement in the Vietnam War. It was released in 1968 while the U.S. was in the middle of its military engagement, and was politically contro ...
'') attracting a substantial amount of controversy, and was also known for aligning himself with
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
thought. His films are critiques of various aspects of American culture or politics, on the whole reflecting a certain degree of political dissension. Over the course of his professional life, de Antonio was under
surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...
by
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation â ...
and the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
. This surveillance resulted in a 10,000-page dossier on de Antonio, and is the subject of his "autobiographical swansong," ''Mr. Hoover and I''.
Death
On December 15, 1989, de Antonio died of a heart attack in front of his
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
home.
In popular culture
A still photograph used in the film that displayed Marine Corporal Michael Wynn later was incorporated into the album cover for
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...
' second album ''
Meat Is Murder
''Meat Is Murder'' is the second studio album by English rock band the Smiths, released on 11 February 1985 by Rough Trade Records. It became the band's only studio album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart, and stayed on the chart for ...
'' (1985). The insignia on Wynn's helmet was changed to "meat is murder".
The Smiths – The Stories Behind All 27 of Their Provocative Album And Single Sleeves - NME
/ref>
Filmography
* ''Point of Order
In parliamentary procedure, a point of order occurs when someone draws attention to a rules violation in a meeting of a deliberative assembly.
Explanation and uses
In ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' (RONR), a point of order may be rai ...
'' (1964)
* ''McCarthy: Death of a Witch Hunter'' (1964)
* ''Rush to Judgment
''Rush to Judgment: A Critique of the Warren Commission's Inquiry into the Murders of President John F. Kennedy, Officer J.D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald'' is a 1966 book by American lawyer Mark Lane (author), Mark Lane. It is about the Assassin ...
'' (1967)
* ''In the Year of the Pig
''In the Year of the Pig'' is an American documentary film directed by Emile de Antonio about American involvement in the Vietnam War. It was released in 1968 while the U.S. was in the middle of its military engagement, and was politically contro ...
'' (1968)
* ''Charge and Countercharge'' (1969)
* ''1968: America Is Hard to See'' (1970)
* '' Millhouse: A White Comedy'' (1971)
* '' Painters Painting'' (1972)
* ''Underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground ...
'' (1976)
* ''In the King of Prussia
''In the King of Prussia'' is a 1983 film directed and written by Emile de Antonio. The film reconstructs the events of the 1980s " Plowshares Eight". The group of anti-war activists were charged with the September 1980 destruction of nose cones ...
'' (1982)
* ''Mr. Hoover and I'' (1989)
Discography
* ''Underground'' (1976) with Mary Lampson, and Haskell Wexler
Haskell Wexler, ASC (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the Int ...
with the Weather Underground
The Weather Underground was a Far-left politics, far-left militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, the group was organiz ...
on Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
* ''Millhouse (Original Soundtrack of Film on Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
)'' (1979) on Folkways Records
References
Further reading
*Lewis, Randolph. ''Emile de Antonio: Radical Filmmaker in Cold War America'' (Madison, WI and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000).
External links
Emile de Antonio Papers
at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, the ...
.
An interview with Emile de Antonio conducted by Bruce Jackson
*
Charge and Countercharge (1969) for educational purchase
Reverse Shot interview with Emile de Antonio conducted by Sam Szurek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonio, Emile de
1919 births
1989 deaths
American documentary filmmakers
American male film actors
American film producers
American tax resisters
Harvard University alumni
Actors from Scranton, Pennsylvania
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American businesspeople
Film directors from Pennsylvania
American communists
Collage filmmakers