Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102656 in DVD
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 74 minutes

Amazon.com
Inducted into the prestigious United States National Film Registry in 1991, David Holzman's Diary is a hilarious and well-aimed satire of the cinéma vérité filmmakers of the 1960s. So naturalistic it fooled many an expert, Diary pretends to be the actual, day-to-day life of young filmmaker David Holzman. Holzman plans to film himself and his acquaintances in order to present a documentary about the common man, if the common man were an annoying film-school student whose girlfriend is getting fed up with being surreptitiously photographed, whose draft board is after him, and who is constantly assailed and assaulted on the streets of New York. Completely self-deprecating and ceaselessly entertaining, this is a rare example of self-conscious filmmaking that never takes itself seriously, but never condescends in its humor. --James DiGiovanna

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece of film about film
This film is NOT a poorly shot diary film by a guy named David Holzman, as some other reviewer implies. It's a CONSTRUCTION, a work of art, a film about film, with L.M.Kit Carson (who was involved in the writing of PARIS TEXAS and has done other stuff, though, sorry, man, I forget what) PORTRAYING the starving artist obsessed by the need to document his life. The film is so realistic, as a sort of mock-verite, that even I, on first viewing it on latenight TV some years ago, not being familiar with the work, thought it was really a diary film, though it's a little too coherent in it's concern for the role of the artist -- too thematically unified -- for one to remain convinced of this for long. Still, the fact that people DO get fooled is a testament to the film's realism. The director, Jim McBride, went on from this astonishingly intelligent little movie to make what I think of as "forgettable Hollywood schlock" like THE BIG EASY. Despite this, serious film buffs -- in both the sense of people who like serious films, and people who are serious buffs -- should check this out.

A note about the existing Fox Lorber transfer
While the quality of the NTSC VHS tape is very good, there is one major flaw in the Fox Lorber version of this film: the transfer is missing the last five minutes of the full version.

The Fox Lorber transfer ends with David Holzman being forced to confront his ex-girlfriend Penny, after being caught by a policeman filming Penny through her window from the street. The last words on the the Fox Lorber transfer are: " ...Penny said forget it." These words are said over black.

It's as if the person in charge of the transfer got bored or impatient at this point because this is where this transfer ends. The film should go on to show Holzman having his film equipment stolen, ending with a series of photo booth shots.

This film is an important film and deserves better treatment than this. Fox Lorber please redress this problem and retrieve the existing faulty transfers. I look forward to a time when we can see a complete version of this film.

Satire of direct cinema
In the sixties Jean-Luc Godard claimed that film was truth 24 frames a second. So David Holzman endevours to see it's true by filming himself to establish some truth about his life. `David Holzman's Diary' is essentially a subtle psuedo-documentary or mockumentary exploring what can be regarded as truth in an emerging media-made reality. It's easy to believe that what we are seeing is real but in reality is scripted and acted and directed. What director Jim McBride (who worked as a news cameraman) is doing is satirizing Godard's theory along with whole direct cinema movement which included D. A. Penebaker (Don't Look Back,1967) and the Sayles brothers (Salesman, 1968). A similar film worth checking out also is Haskell Wexler `Medium Cool' (1969) which takes a greater behind the camera look at the issue blurring line between reality and fiction.

`David Holzman's Diary' is a great film and well worth watching. The Second Run DVD come with an interview of Jim McBride as well as his short film `My Girlfriend's Wedding'(1969)