How we work: Anthony Lane, critic

"I do have one very brutal writing ritual. If I'm working in the morning, I don't allow myself a cup of tea until I've written two paragraphs. It's harsh."

But, asked "To quote the title from your wife's novel, how do you do it?" Lane expressed a preference for writing at the other end of the day:

Round midnight. I wait till peace and quiet and write as I go. I don't enjoy writing. I enjoy rewriting. I like editing myself down. It is journalism. I'm not sitting there waiting for the muse to descend. I'm lucky I have subjects. Nothing would terrify me more than sitting down and being told to write a novel, Chapter One.

He always reviews from a theatre screening (rather than a tape):

RB: Your first viewing of a film will be in a theater?
AL: Absolutely. If in 10 years time the big studios will have thought the critics are a pain more than anything else and they say, "We're not having critic's screenings. You just go on Fridays." Fine by me.
RB: What about tapes?
AL: I never review from tapes. I will get a screening tape if I have already seen the movie and I want to check something. I would never review from the tape. Which makes life easier.

More how we work.

Comments

[annonymous]

I think Lane is a complete a@#hole who has no clue about historical epics and good movies with actual stories even after he sees them! He's just the type to ravage anything that is big because he can and he gets money ...and controversy for it. Did he not listen to the interviews, other reviews and Ridley Scott himself? The biggest mistake Lane made in his review of "Kingdom of Heaven" was comparing it to "Gladiator". If he had any common sense and the least bit of historical knowledge, he would see that there is no grounds to compare or contrast between the two. He will be spat on. Oh, and I'm not a girl. and that should satisfy a rebutle based on support of the leading man Orlando Bloom. Whom I actually thought did a wonderful job and truely knows how to "act"... speaking of the art... something you have no vocabulary for Lane. I'm glad Lane will be a grumpy old man in his later years and not be able to truely appreciate a good thing when he sees it. peace

[Rodcorp]

To be fair, annonymous, Lane's review finds Kingdom of Heaven inferior to Gladiator on the grounds of its story, rather than any historic comparison:

"What cripples "Kingdom of Heaven" is its want of a beat—a basic pulse of expectation that would urge us to stand at Balian’s side and to wonder, like him, what lies over the crest ahead."
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/050509crci_cinema

[gahn]

anonymous, U r a classic loser.

[anonymgirl]

anthony lane is awesome. no questions asked.