Film Critic Vincent Canby Dead at 76

Oct. 16 -- Vincent Canby, who delivered trenchant insights,sober judgments and wry humor in film and theater reviews in TheNew York Times for more than 35 years, died of cancer on Sunday. Hewas 76.

Canby began reviewing films for the Times in 1965 and was itssenior film critic from 1969 to 1993 before turning his attentionto theater. In addition to his reviews in the daily newspaper, hewrote longer analyses for the Arts & Leisure section on Sundays.

Canby’s thousands of articles and essays covered a broad swathof the cinematic arts, from the French New Wave to the rise ofAmerican independent filmmaking, big-budget Hollywood blockbustersand the introduction of videocassette recorders and multiplex moviehouses.

Reviewing the ReviewsHe heralded filmmakers such as Woody Allen, Jane Campion, SpikeLee, Ismail Merchant and James Ivory.

His writing, often more entertaining than the works he reviewed,was set in conversational prose that conveyed a disdain for sentiment and a fine-tuned praise for artistry. Sometimes he employed a dialoguewith an invented character he called Stanley.

In a review of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. TheExtra-Terrestrial, Canby wrote that the 1982 film freely recycleselements from earlier children’s works, including Peter Pan andThe Wizard of Oz.

“Dorothy has become E.T., Kansas is outer space, and Oz is amodern, middle-class real estate development in California,” Canbywrote.

In reviewing Spielberg’s Jaws in 1975, he noted: “If youare what you eat, then one of the sharks in Jaws is a beer can,half a mackerel and a Louisiana license plate. … The othercharacters in the film are nowhere nearly so fully packed.”

Praises for the StageLater in Canby’s career, when he turned to theater criticism, hepraised the plays of Horton Foote, David Mamet and Sam Shepardwhile deploring the ballyhoo of pompous stage effects andover amplified singers’ and actors’ voices.