Review
TURN EVERY PAGE – Review
What a delightful documentary is TURN EVERY PAGE – THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT CARO AND ROBERT GOTTLIEB. This witty, warm and insightful documentary is like a double biography of two literary giants, legendary author Robert Caro and his long-time editor, the equally legendary Robert Gottlieb.
Robert Caro is the author of “The Power Broker,” an examination of the career of New York power broker Robert Moses, considered one of the most definitive non-fiction books on political power behind the scenes, and the award-winning four volume history of Lyndon B. Johnson. Robert Gottlieb is the editor-in-chief of prestigious publishing house Knopf and heads up the renown New Yorker magazine, and has edited an astonishing list of great authors and great books, including Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 (and Gottlieb came up with that number), John Le Carre, Salmon Rushdie, Toni Morrison, and so many more greats that it looks like a list of the best writers and books of the 20th century.
TURN EVERY PAGE is a delight especially if you are a reader, but even if you have an interest in politics and history or you just like meeting intelligent, charming people who have led interesting lives. The two Bobs are significant literary figures but this winning documentary surprises us with their personal stories and their quirky, appealing personalities.
These two men are among the most influential figures in publishing in the 20th century but TURN EVERY PAGE is filled with wit and affection, the personal side of two people with massive talent. Both are shy and charming, but with their prickly side and quirks. Their professional partnership yielded great writing and insightful history but telling their story also tells the story of publishing in a vanishing era.
The director is Gottlieb’s daughter, Lizzie, realized she was in a unique position to tell this story. Her closeness to both subjects is a big help in many ways, including because she knows both these men so well and therefore knows the right questions to ask, and where to find hidden gold for this documentary.
Robert Caro, 87, and Robert Gottlieb, 91, have worked together for 50 years, as partnership that continues as Caro now is working on his last volume on LBJ (which he describes as “volume 5 of a 3 volume biography”), while Gottlieb waits to edit it. But, as he has always done. Gottlieb does not ask when it will be finished, content to wait until Caro knows it is finished, despite the sense that both men are racing against time.
Not that Gottlieb is doing nothing as he waits. In fact he is impressively busy, as the documentary makes clear. He is editing other works, continues to lead the New Yorker, and helps manage a Miami ballet company! And he reads voraciously – everything.
The two Bobs are brilliant but definitely have their quirks. For one thing, they both had to be cajoled in this project. Secondly, they refused to be interviewed together, to even be in the same room. Rather a strange thing for two men who have worked together for so long. Part of the reason was they both felt what they did together, their discussions while editing a book, was too personal to share.
The title comes from something Caro’s editor at Newsday said to him, as he was just getting started as an investigative reporter -“turn every page,” meaning overlook nothing, do not assume, be diligent – you never know what will be revealed on the next page. It is a good description for both this documentary and the way these men have lived. Thorough, sincere, diligent, they both are deeply committed to achieving the highest level in their work. That goal is something that the many authors and readers featured in this documentary attest they have achieved.
The two men are charming but also very different. Gottlieb seems more sociable and funny, while Caro is more reserved and intensely private. Director Lizzie describes growing up in a house filled with literary figures, frequently gathered around the table for dinners. Everyone except Robert Caro. Caro was the distant enigma, the one who held himself apart, someone Lizzie Gottlieb describes as her “white whale.” One might expect such a figure to be cool, unpleasant, maybe curmudgeonly. Yet Caro is nothing like that. Instead he is polite, personable, smiling, but clearly a quiet, serious person who thinks deeply about his work and strives to make it as perfect as it can be. Still turning every page.
Then there was the debate over semicolons. Caro loves them, Gottlieb not so much. No really, this is serious stuff for these professionals who makes their living on words, but director Lizzie Gottlieb gives this debate a light comic touch, which makes us laugh a little, and uses it to bring out their personalities. Listening to the two of them verbally sparring over punctuation is amusing but surprisingly heartwarming.
The documentary delves into both men’s professional process and recaps some parts of Caro’s “The Power Broker,” on New York mover-and-shaker Robert Moses and his Lyndon Baines Johnson books, which reveal how the books reveal the inner workings of politics through these powerful men’s story. If you have read Caro’s books, the film gives insights on the author’s research, For those that have not, the documentary gives a taste of the kind of shocking revelations the books contain. Another thing the documentary spotlights is Caro’s equal devotion to the quality of the writing, something that makes his books a joy to read in themselves.
As much as the author and editor may battle over punctuation or Caro’s love of the word “loom,” the admiration both men have for each other comes through clearly. The documentary also captures a sense of a passing era, as these long-time collaborators reach the ends of their careers. In the end, the two Bobs finally agree to be filmed together as they work but only with the sound off, keeping what they say private. But that sense of an era gone by is captured poignantly as the two of them scour the Knopf offices in search of a number 2 pencil. It is a perfect moment with which to end this warm and insightful film.
TURN EVERY PAGE – THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT CARO AND ROBERT GOTTLIEB opens Friday, Feb. 10, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas and other theaters.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars
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