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Characters on the Couch
Film & Television Blog

by Dr. Sandra Cohen

LEO HURWITZ
ESSAY ON DEATH
IN MEMORY OF JFK 1964

“A very dangerous and uncertain world, the President said on that last day …” Leo Hurwitz’s Essay On Death (Watch Film) speaks to death’s randomness. Of course, JFK’s murder wasn’t random. But death can come out of nowhere at any time. And, that means we live constantly with the fragility of life. At the same…

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THREE BILLBOARDS
OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
How Does The Buck Finally Stop?

Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic and deeply painful Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri gives us a tough look at how anger and blame is one (ineffective) way of trying to handle very difficult feelings. We have Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), a bereaved mom: hardened, blunt, feeling uncharacteristically helpless, and furious about it. The town’s much loved…

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LEO HURWITZ
HERE AT THE WATER’S EDGE 1961
Seeing What Needs To Be Seen

Leo Hurwitz’s film, Here At The Water’s Edge (Watch Film), features the 1960 New York City’s waterfront. Made with photographer Charles Pratt, the film is a cinematic poem to the people who work on the water. Pratt, who largely financed the film, made it possible for Leo to use his vision as an artist and…

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