An Affair of the Skin

Infobox Film
name = An Affair of the Skin


caption =
director = Ben Maddow
producer = Helen Levitt
Ben Maddow
writer = Ben Maddow
starring = Viveca Lindfors
Kevin McCarthy
Lee Grant
Diana Sands
Herbert Berghof
Nancy Malone
Osceola Archer
Will Lee
music =
cinematography = Roger Barlow
David Shore
editing = Verna Fields
distributor = Zenith International Film Corp.
released = 1963
runtime = 102 minutes
country = USA
awards =
language =
budget =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0058877

"An Affair of the Skin" is 1963 film written and directed by Ben Maddow. It is a complex story of the romantic entanglements of its several characters as seen through the eyes of a black woman photographer. The film was harshly reviewed shortly after its release in "Time Magazine". [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898136,00.html "Dermis, Anyone?"] "Time Magazine", December 6, 1963. Online version retrieved Jan. 31, 2008.] Woody Haut's recent characterization is more sympathetic: [Haut, Woody (2008). [http://www.webcitation.org/5VuUtIZgu "Ben Maddow: Affairs of the Skin,"] blog posted by a film critic who has published several books. Archived by WebCite from the [http://woodyhaut.blogspot.com original] 2008-02-26.] quote|...a worthy, if not altogether successful, attempt at being an American art movie, a hodgepodge of influences, from Italian Realists, Antonioni and Bergman to US social conscience films and documentarists like Robert Flaherty. Written, produced and directed by former documentarist and Hollywood scriptwriter Ben Maddow, the film was, for the most part, shot on the streets of New York, and memorable for its sensuousness, its street-level camera-work and use of natural light.

Maddow is reported as feeling that the initial release of "An Affair of the Skin" had been rushed for financial reasons. In 1973, ten years later its initial release, Maddow re-edited and released it again under the title "Love As Disorder". As described by John Hagan, "An offscreen narration by the photographer was added to establish her as an observer: a participant in the action but also a caustic chronicler of it. As in much of Maddow's work, inner disorder is seen against a background of social unrest as described in a highly imagistic manner by a person who has both emotional involvement and critical detachment." [Hagan, John (2000). " [http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Lo-Me/Maddow-Ben.html Ben Maddow] ", in Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast (editors), "International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers, Edition 4" (St. James Press), ISBN 978-1558624498. Online version of article retrieved January 9, 2008.]

References and external links

*imdb title|id=0058877