Film Forum

A portrait of the literary partnership between Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro (at work on volume 5 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson) and multi-hyphenate Robert Gottlieb, the quintessential New York editor (former editor-in-chief at Knopf and The New Yorker), who counts programming for The New York City Ballet and lucite handbag collecting among his hobbies. Caro’s granular dissection of how power is wielded in 20th century America is matched by the intuitive, meticulous approach of Gottlieb, with whom he’s worked for more than 50 years. Directed by Gottlieb’s daughter Lizzie, the film is a literati dream – as Caro tours Johnson’s roots in the Texas hill country and pecks away 24/7 on his Smith Corona Electra 210, locking horns with Gottlieb on matters big and small. A vigorous debate over Caro’s use of semicolons is a hilarious highlight.

114 MIN.     USA     SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

With support from the Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund.

Reviews

“CRITIC’S PICK. TANTALIZING. A great profile, filled with wit, affection and detailed stories of how the books came to be.”
– Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times

“Civil wars over semicolons and heated debate over the word ‘looms’ would not, on the face of it, seem like the stuff of a gripping big-screen movie. But make no mistake about it, TURN EVERY PAGE… is as much a rock ‘em, sock ‘em clash of heavyweights as found in any blockbuster — just one where the protagonists happen to quote from King Lear and Homer’s Iliad.”
– Jake Coyle, Associated Press

“Gottlieb and Caro had a long history of antagonism, squabbling over things large and small, including the semicolon. Lizzie’s first hurdle was to persuade both men to be in the film… Perfectly balanced, (the film is) a rare window into a relationship that usually goes undocumented… the dance between editor and writer.”
– Mary Norris, The New Yorker
Read the full review.

“Enthralling. Robert Caro… writes towering books of nonfiction… (and) has been hailed as the greatest biographer of all time. (The film) is a love letter to many aspects of the publishing world that have more or less fallen by the wayside. Meticulously even handed and revealing. The fraternity of Caro and Gottlieb (is)… a partnership that everyone, including them, describes as fantastically contentious. Gottlieb… a Woody Allen who escaped neurosis… Caro… as unassuming as his books are monumental…. a biographer of American power from the top down and the bottom up. Gottlieb knew within 15 pages that The Power Broker was a masterpiece…a study in how the world – of money, power, and ego – actually works. This would become Caro’s grand theme. There’s a breathtaking scene when Caro… recounts talking to Johnson’s brother… getting him to tell the truth about Johnson. A profoundly human vision of how politics and corruption dance together in America. (Caro’s books) are immersive, they are history – but more than that, they’re foundations of a civilized society. They… remind us, in an age of shattered attention spans and narcotic media that the big picture is the true picture.
Everything else is fragments.”
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“An utterly engaging gift to a certain sort of wonky aficionado. Caro is simultaneously one of the most deliberate and prolific writers of the past century and surely one of the most significant chroniclers of 20th-century America. Gottlieb is the former editor-in-chief at Knopf, a publishing titan… Caro surrounded by box upon box of documents… is akin to getting footage of Mozart sitting down at the piano with a pile of blank sheet music. A film about writing and editing and publishing, about creativity and creation… that includes astonishing details.
As heartfelt as it is brainy.”
– Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter