From The New Yorker: Reichardt is this country’s finest observer of ordinary grit, an American neorealist to place among the likes of Robert Bresson, Yasujirō Ozu, and Vittorio De Sica. The regard for her takes on a hero aspect. It can often feel dazed because of the deep reserve of Reichardt’s stamina, which has carried her through her singular three-decade career. What can seem ambiguous or glamorous about the labor of a director surfaces, in her case, as explicit and arduous. She may scour dozens of states for a filming location, grinding vehicles into highways and back roads. She splits the editing work with an assistant. She is fifty-nine; a good portion of her adulthood has been spread across sublets and rentals, in New York City and the Pacific Northwest. Only in recent years has she been financially able to tie herself to a mortgage. She is a working artist, one who supplements filmmaking with teaching undergraduates. Why should this normal life be classed as sacrifice, as pure? “I never assumed,” Reichardt said, “that I was not going to have a job.”
Stream Kelly Reichardt’s films on Peacock (FIRST COW, NIGHT MOVES, WENDY & LUCY), Tubi (CERTAIN WOMEN), MAX (OLD JOY), Showtime (MEEK’S CUTOFF), Plex (RIVER OF GRASS) and more!
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