Crumb (1994)

Director:

Terry Zwigoff

Release Date:

28 April 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Tagline:

Weird sex · Obsession · Comic books

Plot:

An intimate portrait of the controversial cartoonist and his traumatized family.

Plot Keywords:

Satire | Comic Book | Robert Crumb | Underground | Art

Awards:

14 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Robert Crumb	...	Himself
Aline Kominsky	...	Herself (as Aline Crumb)
Charles Crumb	...	Himself
Maxon Crumb	...	Himself
Robert Hughes	...	Himself
Martin Muller	...	Himself
Don Donahue	...	Himself
Dana Morgan	...	Herself (as Dana Crumb)
Trina Robbins	...	Herself
Spain Rodriguez	...	Himself
Bill Griffith	...	Himself
Deirdre English	...	Herself
Peggy Orenstein	...	Herself
Beatrice Crumb	...	Herself
Kathy Goodell	...	Herself
Dian Hanson	...	Herself
Sophie Crumb	...	Herself
Jesse Crumb	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joseph Frantz	...	Himself (uncredited)

Directed by
Terry Zwigoff

Produced by
Albert Berger	....	executive producer
Lianne Halfon	....	executive producer
Neal Halfon	....	co-producer
Lynn O'Donnell	....	producer
Lawrence Wilkinson	....	executive producer
Terry Zwigoff	....	producer

Original Music by
David Boeddinghaus

Cinematography by
Maryse Alberti

Film Editing by
Victor Livingston

Sound Department
David Franklin Bergad	....	sound editor
Scott Breindel	....	sound
Sara Chin	....	assistant sound recordist
Chris Choy	....	assistant sound recordist
Curtis Choy	....	location sound recordist
Francesca Dodd	....	dialogue editor
Doug Dunderdale	....	assistant sound recordist
Michael Emery	....	assistant sound recordist
Marjorie L. Hagar	....	sound synchronisation
John Haptus	....	assistant sound recordist
Scott Levitin	....	dialogue editor
Steve Longstreth	....	assistant sound recordist
Kyrsten Mate	....	sound effects editor (as Kyrsten Mate Comoglio)
Wendy McLaughlin	....	sound synchronisation
Walter Murch	....	sound re-recording mixer
E. Jeane Putnam	....	dialogue editor
Patti Tauscher	....	sound synchronisation

Camera and Electrical Department
Joe Arcidiacono	....	assistant camera
Debbie Brubaker	....	assistant camera
Michael Chin	....	camera operator
Ray Day	....	camera operator
Tina Di Feliciantonio	....	assistant camera
Doug Dunderdale	....	assistant camera
Jon Else	....	camera operator
Ashley James	....	camera operator
Kyle Kibbe	....	camera operator
Hilary Morgan	....	assistant camera
Nancy Morita	....	camera operator
Steven Okazaki	....	assistant camera
Tomas Tucker	....	camera operator
Poly Veitzer	....	assistant camera
David Weissman	....	assistant camera
Mustapha Barat	....	camera operator: additional photography (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Helen Dersjant	....	assistant editor
Noëlle Penraat	....	negative cutter
Gene Zippo	....	color timer

Music Department
David Boeddinghaus	....	music arranger
James P. Johnson	....	composer: song "Harlem Strut"

Other crew
Melissa Axelrod	....	transcriptions
Eva Eilenberg	....	intern
Jim Kallet	....	edge-coding
John McCormick	....	supply boy
Sean O'Brien	....	production accountant
John Pierson	....	producer's representative
Andy Reichsman	....	location manager
Kippy Robinson	....	production assistant
Jane Schneider	....	intern
J. Michael Stremel	....	production assistant
Jay Tannenbaum	....	fundraising clip editor
Kim Yu	....	publicist: canada

Thanks
Charles Crumb	....	dedicatee
John Hays	....	thanks
Joe Hutshing	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Superior Pictures

Distributors

• Columbia TriStar (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Films Transit International
• Haut et Court (France)
• Madman Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Publifolha Vídeo (199?) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Sony Pictures Classics (1995) (USA)

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for graphic sex-related cartoons, and for language

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:U | UK:18 | USA:R | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Superior Pictures

Trivia:

The late Gene Siskel considered it the best film of the year.

Goofs:

Factual errors: "San Francisco" is misspelled in the closing titles. The caption reads: "Max Crumb still lives in San Francicsco".

Quotes:

Terry Zwigoff:What are you trying to get at in your work?
Robert Crumb:Jesus! I dunno. I don't work in terms of conscious messages. I can't do that. It has to be something that I'm revealing to myself while I'm doing it. It's hard to explain. Which means that, while I'm doing it, I don't know what it's about. You have to have the courage, or the... to take that chance, you know? What's gonna come out? What's coming out of this? I enjoy drawing. It's a deeply ingrained habit.

Movie Connections:

Features "Sheena: Queen of the Jungle: Curse of Voodoo (#1.3)" (1955)

Soundtrack:

35th Street Blues

Strange and interesting study of a warped genius

Robert Crumb must have had a bellyful of people calling him a genius, but that's exactly what he is. Having grown up a bullied, miserable child - and an anachronism almost from the start, with his interests in pop culture ephemera and old-time music - in a dysfunctional family (his father was an overbearing tyrant, his mother an amphetamine addict, his older brother so obsessed with comics that he forces his siblings to draw them), Crumb escaped this drudgery by fleeing to Cleveland, where he first became a staff artist for a greetings card company, then one of their most innovative and prolific designers, before relocating to San Fransisco. His initial impetus was to "get some of that free love stuff", but his pen ran away with his thoughts and he wound up virtually launching the underground comics movement. Between 1968 and 1993, Crumb produced some of the funniest, most outrageous, licentious and flat-out brilliant comic book work of all time, and this film is an invaluable insight into the man behind the madness and the mayhem. Turns out Crumb, despite his bizarre appearance (he's stick thin, wears Coke-bottle spectacles and dresses like a character actor from a 1930s comedy) and sexual deviance (he likes nothing more than hefty haunches and big, strong legs in a woman), is something of an everyman - he's married, dotes on his understanding wife and gifted daughter, and feels just as alienated from the 'evils' of modern living as the rest of us sensitive intellectuals! At first glance, of course, Crumb is as weird as they come, but the sight of the aforementioned older brother Charles (a reclusive crank who rarely leaves his squalid bedroom, let alone the house) and younger brother Maxon (a haunted, bedraggled amateur mystic, given to sitting on beds of nails and begging on the street with a wooden bowl) throws the relative sanity of Robert into stark relief. One gets the impression that if Robert had not escaped, he'd have wound up suffering just as much as Charles and Maxon, possibly even more. This isn't easy viewing and the subjects are undeniably resistable, but it does offer a unique and enlightening glimpse into the reality of the old cliché about genius and madness walking hand-in-hand. Recommended.