Word: film
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...Gist: Over the last 40 years, film critic Roger Ebert has made a regular habit of championing independent films and little-known directors. And so it was in November of 1967 when, after being a film critic for only seven months, he went out on a limb to lavish praise on a first-time filmmaker by the name of Martin Scorsese - penning the first-ever writeup for this unknown New Yorker whose debut feature I Call First premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival...
...Scorsese clipped and cherished that early review, and in the introduction to his latest book, Scorsese By Ebert, Ebert says that first feature film flagged Scorsese as a director to watch: "This film had a quality that sent tingles up my arms. It felt made out of my dreams and guilts ... Everything about that movie stabbed me in the heart and soul. I had seen great films, I had in truth seen greater films, but never one that so touched me. Perhaps it was because of that experience that I became a film critic, instead of simply working...
...Deep Throat millions never got to Damiano - how does a director put muscle on the Mafia? - but it did allow him to pursue his dream of being a respected film auteur, though still in hardcore. Most directors with a left-field mega-hit would instantly crank out another picture in the same genre. Not Damiano. He used his cash, and cachet, from his silly porno comedy to make a super-serioso drama: Devil in Miss Jones. And this time under his own name. Reading the script, Reems told his friend: "Gerry, it's a steal. This is No Exit...
...made a couple more ambitious porn films: the psychodrama ghost story Memories Within Miss Aggie (1974) and the dreamy, Marienbadesque The Story of Joanna (1975). But by then, porno was an industry, and it relied less on artistic pretension than on grinding out product. In the next 20 years, Damiano put his name on another three dozen or so hardcore movies, none of which made much of an impact. Like silent-film director D.W. Griffith in the talkie era, Damiano was a pioneer whom new trends left behind. According to the local News-Press, he "lived out his final years...
...This maker of indecent films was, by all accounts, a decent man. "He was...always very charming and dapper and suave," writes News-Press columnist Stephanie Davis, "always there with a kiss and a 'Hello, Gorgeous.'" In a 2005 interview, Damiano described himself as "just a nice guy, which is why I think I did pretty well. I mean, I'd meet an actress and have to say, 'Sit down, take your clothes off - I'm going to ask you to do some nasty things.' You have to be pretty nice." On his 80th birthday, adult-film stars flew...