HOW TO MAKE A BOOK WITH STEIDL (Jörg Adolph, Gereon Wetzel, Germany). 90 min. Some German (no subtitles). Rating: NNNN
Bibliophiles, art lovers and those who own the DVD of Helvetica will adore this film about Gerhard Steidl, the brilliant publisher whose lovingly crafted art books have made his tiny inde pen dent publishing house in a small German town world-renowned.
Directors Jörg Adolph and Gereon Wetzel follow the fastidious, dryly humorous Steidl as he visits his clients, who range from Robert Frank and Ed Ruscha to Karl Lagerfeld and Günter Grass. We learn little about the man himself a rare moment of comedy comes when one of his pens leaks in his shirt pocket. But watching him go from the beginning of a project to the end with photographer Joel Sternfeld teaches you everything about his aesthetic and philosophy, which is refreshing in the digital age.
