‘Algren’: Film Review

First Run Features presents

Michael Caplan's Documentary Feature

ALGREN

Opening in Cinemas Nationwide beginning October 1st
including the Laemmle Monica in Los Angeles

Nelson Algren is probably the most influential American writer of the 20th century. His work is a precedent to the Beat Generation writers, especially William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, also to musicians such as Lou Reed. Some would say Hemmingway is more influential: PBS just featured a three part series from Ken Burns. Paul Auster has just published an 800 page book about Stephen Crane, who some think invented gritty realism, just as Hemmingway brought a direct writing style to the table. Two years ago we had the first great Algren biography: Never A Lovely So Real - The Life and Works of Nelson Algren by Colin Asher. That book and this film by Michael Caplan hopefully will bring a focus to the largely forgotten writer. Most of Algren's work takes place in Chicago, and most of his best books came out in the 1940s and 1950s. Algren never travelled in New York publishing circles nor did he go Hollywood. He started out as a journalist and published short stories. He was arrested in Texas for stealing a typewriter. He came back to Chicago and depicted the poor, mostly Polish people. His style and subjects were a total breakthrough. Success finally came with the publication of The Man With The Golden Arm (1949). He won the National Book Award. Much of the film deals with his relationship with Simone de Beauvoir. Algren never wrote much about the relationship, but Beauvoir wrote two or three books about Algren. Algren spent much of his later life writing about boxing and mostly non-fiction. He ended up in New Jersey and Long Island in his later years. This movie by Michael Chaplan is an entertaining overview of the career of Nelson Algren. (Alexander Laurence)