Mick LaSalle
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Mick LaSalle (born May 7, 1959) is an American film critic currently writing for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of two books on pre-code Hollywood. As of March 2008, he has written in excess of 1550 reviews [1], and he has been podcasting them since September 2005 [2].
LaSalle is the author of Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, a history/critical study of the actresses who worked in the film industry between 1929-1934. It was published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2000. In his review in the New York Times, Andy Webster called it "an overdue examination of a historic conflict between Hollywood and would-be monitors of morality" and added LaSalle "has an avuncular but informative style, and makes his points with a relaxed economy." [3]
The book served as the basis for the documentary film Complicated Women, directed by Hugh Munro Neely and narrated by Jane Fonda, which originally was broadcast by Turner Classic Movies in May 2003. LaSalle provided commentary for and served as Associate Producer of the project [4].
LaSalle's follow-up to Complicated Women was Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man, published by Thomas Dunne in 2002.
LaSalle has lectured on film subjects at various film festivals, including those in the Hamptons, Denver, Las Vegas, and Mill Valley and at New York City's Film Forum and San Francisco's Castro Theatre. For several years he taught a film course at the University of California, Berkeley, and now teaches film courses at Stanford University.
In the late 1990s, LaSalle was the on-air film critic for KGO-TV. He is a member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle [5], and was a panelist at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. In addition to his reviews, he answers film-related questions in the Chronicle column Ask Mick LaSalle.
LaSalle is married to playwright Amy Freed [6].
