Robert Kramer (1939-99), an American filmmaker more highly regarded in his adopted country of France than at home, made his four-hour magnum opus, “Route One/USA,” as a tourist in his native land. Now the newly restored film is having its first extended run in three decades, streaming from Film at Lincoln Center, with a wider virtual release to follow. At once free-flowing and fragmented, Kramer’s travelogue alternates its focus between great historic places and obscure pit stops. The most bizarre is St. Augustine’s Tragedy in U.S. History Museum, a repository for death cars and torture implements. The filmmakers mark Halloween in Salem with a coven of witches and find another metaphor in the local factory where Parker Brothers manufactures its Monopoly game.

Source: New York Times August 19, 2020 19:07 UTC