Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...

who has written for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' since 1999.

Education

Brody grew up in

Roslyn, New York Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census. History Ro ...

, and attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, receiving a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in comparative literature in 1980. He first became interested in films after seeing

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

's seminal

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

film '' Breathless'' during his freshman year at Princeton. In the early 1980s, after graduating from college, Brody briefly lived in Paris. He is the author of a biography of Godard.

Career

Before becoming a film critic, Brody worked on documentaries and made several independent films. In December 2014, he was made a Chevalier (Knight) in the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

for his contributions in popularizing French cinema in America.

Favorite films

Brody participated in the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: *'' Gertrud'' (Denmark, 1964) *''

The Great Dictator ''The Great Dictator'' is a 1940 American anti-war political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced, scored by, and starring British comedian Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Having been the onl ...

'' (USA, 1940) *''

Husbands A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures, ...

'' (USA, 1970) *''

Journey to Italy ''Journey to Italy'', also known as ''Voyage to Italy'', is a 1954 drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini. Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders play Katherine and Alex Joyce, a childless English married couple on a trip to Italy whose marriage i ...

'' (Italy, 1954) *''

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...

'' (USA, 1987) *'' The Last Laugh'' (Germany, 1924) *''

Marnie ''Marnie'' is an English crime novel, written by Winston Graham and first published in 1961. It has been adapted as a film, a stage play and an opera. Plot ''Marnie'' is about a young woman who makes a living by embezzling her employers' funds, ...

'' (USA, 1964) *'' Playtime'' (France, 1967) *''

The Rules of the Game ''The Rules of the Game'' (original French title: ''La règle du jeu'') is a 1939 French Satire, satirical comedy-drama film directed by Jean Renoir. The ensemble cast includes Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Marcel Dalio, Julien ...

'' (France, 1939) *''

Shoah The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

'' (France, 1985)

Best films of the year

*2007: '' In Praise of Love'' *2008: ''

Wendy and Lucy ''Wendy and Lucy'' is a 2008 American drama film directed by Kelly Reichardt. Reichardt and Jon Raymond adapted the screenplay from his short story ''Train Choir''. The film stars Michelle Williams as Wendy, a homeless woman who searches for he ...

'' *2009: ''

Fantastic Mr. Fox ''Fantastic Mr Fox'' is a children's literature, children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1970, by Allen & Unwin, George Allen & Unwin in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Ch ...

'' *2010: ''

Shutter Island ''Shutter Island'' is a novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published by HarperCollins in April 2003. It is about a U.S. Marshal who goes to an isolated hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a patient who is ...

'' *2011: '' The Future'' *2012: ''

Holy Motors ''Holy Motors'' is a 2012 fantasy drama film written and directed by Leos Carax and starring Denis Lavant and Édith Scob. Lavant plays Mr. Oscar, a man who appears to have a job as an actor, as he is seen dressing up in different costumes and pe ...

'' and ''

Moonrise Kingdom ''Moonrise Kingdom'' is a 2012 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, and starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, ...

'' *2013: '' The Wolf of Wall Street'' *2014: ''

The Grand Budapest Hotel ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' is a 2014 comedy-drama film written and directed by Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes leads a seventeen-actor ensemble cast as Monsieur Gustave H., famed concierge of a twentieth-century mountainside resort in the fiction ...

'' *2015: ''

Chi-Raq ''Chi-Raq'' () is a 2015 American musical crime comedy drama film, directed and produced by Spike Lee and co-written by Lee and Kevin Willmott. Set in Chicago, the film focuses on the gang violence prevalent in neighborhoods on the city's sou ...

'' *2016: '' Little Sister'' *2017: ''

Get Out ''Get Out'' is a 2017 American psychological horror film written, co-produced, and directed by Jordan Peele in his directorial debut. It stars Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Lil Rel Howery, LaKeith Stanfield, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Land ...

'' *2018: ''

Madeline's Madeline ''Madeline's Madeline'' is a 2018 American drama film written and directed by Josephine Decker. It stars Helena Howard in the titular role, alongside Molly Parker as her teacher and Miranda July as her mother. Howard plays a teenage actor, M ...

'' *2019: ''

The Irishman ''The Irishman'' (subtitled onscreen as ''I Heard You Paint Houses'') is a 2019 American epic gangster film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 nonfiction book '' I Heard You Paint Hou ...

'' *2020: ''

Kajillionaire ''Kajillionaire'' is a 2020 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Miranda July (her third feature following ''Me and You and Everyone We Know'' and '' The Future''). The film stars Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger and Richard Je ...

'' *2021: ''

The French Dispatch ''The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun'', or simply ''The French Dispatch'', is a 2021 American anthology comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola, Hugo Gui ...

Religious convictions

Brody was described as

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

in a 1993 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' profile. He has since identified as an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Bibliography

References

External links

''New Yorker'' page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brody, Richard 1958 births Living people American expatriates in France American film critics National Society of Film Critics Members Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The New Yorker critics People from Roslyn, New York Princeton University alumni 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Jewish American atheists