Documenting Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer confused us all.“The greatest American writer is a bum,” critic Pauline Kael concluded. And he was. But not always: now brawling, ripped and murderous; then focused, productive and beguiling. Even loving. And generous. Mailer wrote “The Naked and the Dead,” in 1948, the big World War II novel the country longed for. It made him famous. Everyone read it. He was 26. Then he wrote more books and won two Pulitzer Prizes. He ran for mayor of New York City, helped start The Village Voice, tried levitating the Pentagon to protest the war in Vietnam and gave journalism a personal and intriguing voice. In 2007 he died at age 84. Filmmaker Joseph Mantegna’s documentary “Norman Mailer The American” will be screened at The Moviehouse’s FilmWorks Forum this Sunday at noon. Among the wives, six in all, and children, totalling 9, friends, enemies, admirers and observers who opened up to Mantegna is Mailer’s daughter Danielle Mailer. She is an artist who lives in Goshen and teaches at Indian Mountain School. Her father stabbed and nearly killed her mother Adele. “We grew up thinking it was an accident,” Danielle Mailer told me in an interview about the movie. She is proud of the film. “My father was portrayed here as a monster, as a hero and as a family man.” She loved him, and she was alarmed by him. “I buried my anguish in my painting,” she said. She will attend the screening and will join Mantegna in a Q & A session after the movie. “Norman Mailer The American” is to be shown at The Moviehouse in Millerton May 1 at noon. Call 860-435-2897 for information.