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Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss.jpg
Born
Richard Nelson Corliss

(1944-03-06)March 6, 1944
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died April 23, 2015(2015-04-23) (aged 71)
New York City, U.S.
Alma mater St. Joseph's College
Columbia University
New York University
Occupation Editor, writer, critic
Years active 1966–2015
Employer
Notable work
  • Talking Pictures: Screenwriters in American Cinema
  • Greta Garbo (A Pyramid illustrated history of the movies)
  • 1980 cover story on Dallas's "Who Shot J.R.?"
Spouse(s)
Mary Elizabeth Yushak
​
(m. 1969)​

Richard Nelson Corliss (born March 6, 1944 – died April 23, 2015) was an American film critic and editor. He was best known for writing about movies for Time magazine.

Before joining Time, he was the main editor of Film Comment magazine. He also wrote several books, including Talking Pictures. This book, and his other writings, helped people pay more attention to the movie's screenwriter (the person who writes the story) instead of just the director.

About Richard Corliss

Richard Corliss was born in 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Elizabeth Brown and Paul William Corliss.

He went to St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia. There, he earned a bachelor's degree. Later, he studied at Columbia University and earned a master's degree in film studies. This means he learned a lot about how movies are made and what they mean.

Richard Corliss lived in New York City with his wife, Mary. They got married on August 31, 1969. Mary used to work at the Museum of Modern Art, where she helped with their collection of film pictures.

Richard Corliss passed away in New York City on April 23, 2015, after having a stroke.

His Career in Film

Richard Corliss wrote for many different magazines. From 1966 to 1970, he wrote for National Review. He also wrote for New Times, Maclean's, and SoHo Weekly News.

Working at Film Comment

At Film Comment magazine, Corliss helped bring more attention to the role of the screenwriter in movies. He disagreed with another film critic, Andrew Sarris, who believed that the director was always the main "author" of a film. Corliss had actually been a student of Sarris at New York University (NYU), and they remained friends.

Corliss was the editor of Film Comment from 1970 to 1990. He even came up with the idea for an issue about "guilty pleasures" in movies, along with director Martin Scorsese.

Writing for Time Magazine

In 1980, Corliss joined Time magazine. He started as an associate editor and was promoted to senior writer by 1985. He wrote for both the print magazine and the Time website.

He had a column called That Old Feeling, which looked back at popular culture from the past. He also sometimes appeared on TV shows, like The Charlie Rose Show, to talk about new movies. He appeared in documentaries about Jackie Chan and Warner Bros..

Corliss was one of the American journalists who attended the Cannes Film Festival for the longest time, along with Roger Ebert and Todd McCarthy. He also went to film festivals in Toronto and Venice.

His Books and Lists

Corliss wrote a book called Lolita, which was a study of the famous book by Vladimir Nabokov and the movie by Stanley Kubrick. He also wrote an introduction for the book about the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

He really liked Pixar movies. He even included Finding Nemo on a list of the 100 greatest movies of all time, which he made with fellow Time critic Richard Schickel.

Corliss also created other movie lists, such as the 25 greatest villains, the 25 best horror films, and the 25 most important films about race. In 2001, he was on the jury for the AFI's list of the 100 Greatest Movies.

Film Criticism and Views

Richard Corliss often shared his strong opinions about movies.

He was critical of how much money was being spent on action films. For example, in his review of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), he pointed out that moviegoers paid the same price for a ticket to a low-budget documentary as they did for a huge blockbuster.

Sometimes, Corliss's top movie picks were very different from those of his colleague, Richard Schickel. For instance, Corliss loved Moulin Rouge! (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), while Schickel thought they were some of the worst films of those years.

In a 1993 Time magazine review of The Crying Game, Corliss famously hinted at a major plot twist by spelling it out using the first letter of each paragraph.

Corliss also appeared in the 2009 documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. In it, he admitted that he was the critic who first used the term "Paulettes" for the dedicated fans of another famous film critic, Pauline Kael.

He had some disagreements with film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert about their TV show, Siskel and Ebert. However, Corliss later praised Ebert in an article called "Thumbs up for Roger Ebert." He also appeared in Ebert's documentary Life Itself, where he spoke highly of Ebert's wide knowledge.

His Top Movie Picks

Here are some of the movies Richard Corliss chose as his number one film of the year:

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