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Derrida

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 1 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by:
Kirby Dick
Amy Ziering Kofman
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 23, 2002
DVD: January 20, 2004
Running Time: 85 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Language(s): English and French (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Jacques Derrida
This documentary examines one of the most visionary and influential thinkers of the 20th century, a man who single-handedly altered the way many of us look at history, language, art, and, ultimately, ourselves: the brilliant and iconoclastic French philosopher Jacques Derrida. (Zeitgeist Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Chain Camera This Film Is Not Yet Rated Twist of Faith
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
LA Weekly Holly Willis
The result is fascinating, whether you're smitten by him or his work, or simply intrigued by contemporary thought.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
As the film takes shape, the form and the subject develop a fascinating symbiosis, with Derrida cast as an active participant in the deconstruction of his own documentary.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
If you think 85 minutes devoted to a "difficult" French philosopher is bound to be either abstruse or watered-down middlebrow stuff, think again.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Tim Merrill
Even if you have no idea what French philosopher Jacques Derrida's theories are about, allow your mind the chance to be teased and twisted by the unique new documentary.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
An affectionate but aptly complex view of one of our epoch's great philosophers.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
The adoring and adorable documentary on the philosopher Jacques Derrida.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Challenging and fascinating -- everything you didn't know you didn't know about Derrida's life and work.
Village Voice J. Hoberman
The movie is ultimately about the philosopher's personality -- if you loved "Lingua Franca" (and what lumpen academoid did not?), you'll certainly dig Derrida.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
The picture's charm lies in the continuing by-play between the filmmakers and their subject, with each side doing its best to deconstruct the other.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Nicely photographed and beautifully scored.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The result puts a human face on Derrida, and makes one of the great minds of our times interesting and accessible to people who normally couldn't care less.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Who would have guessed a documentary about Derrida, the great French philosopher of deconstruction and "différence," would be so entertaining?
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
The sort of film one should probably see either a half-dozen times or not at all. It's a complex, highly ambitious documentary that aptly reflects its subject, contemporary French philosopher Jacques Derrida.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Overall, the filmmakers are a little too reverent -- it would have been interesting to hear Derrida respond to criticism leveled against deconstruction as an academic methodology -- but then again, they're not entirely in control here.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
A charming but only partly satisfying portrait of its subject.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
For those unfamiliar with the notoriously camera-averse philosopher and his thoughts, Derrida will most probably prove to be an unenlightening bore.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
A. Zubatov gave it a 4:
Derrida, the man, acquits himself quite well, playfully engaging and teasing the filmmakers and managing to muster interesting, if not illuminating, answers to their inept questions. He is the highlight, however, because "Derrida," the film, leaves much to be desired. The direction itself is simply atrocious, making use of a roving camera that appears to be helpless and lost, interspersed with melodramatic and grandiose slow-motion shots in the worst tradition of "Rescue 911" reconstructions, complemented by out-of-place and laughably ominous sonic bleeps and whooshes to infuse the film with an air of affectation sufficient to embarrass even the most brazenly high-minded of Derrida's devotees. While such techniques are largely deployed in service of the tongue-in-cheek deconstructive gesture the filmmakers intend, the amateurish execution undermines their effort to the point where they would have been better off simply telling a straight story, even if it would have been far less faithful in spirit to one of the most evasive thinkers our civilization has produced.
